THEY will deliver, at no extra charge, your new computer. And they'll be coming in a taxi or bus.

Meet the folks behind Pandora's Box, the latest of a handful of online computer stores that have sprung up in the past year here.

For now, their customers are mainly tech-savvy shoppers, expatriates and owners of small firms.

Their store-room are their own homes and their 'shop address' is their website www.pandorabox.com.sg.

The three undergraduates who run Pandora's Box say they cut costs by delivering computers personally after receiving orders from its website. They are paid cash on delivery, earning from a margin of a mere few per cent.

Depending on brand and features, their computers cost between $1,000 and $5,000 - prices one would find at computer meccas Sim Lim Square or Funan Mall.

Customers can also order parts like graphic cards.

The online store was set up by the three friends four months ago.

Their business model is in fact a reprise of the 1990s 'dot.com' era in the United States, when small online stores kept minimal inventory and saved on rent.

Online retailers like them are surer now that online shoppers - much more Internet-savvy today - are prepared to buy without needing to 'touch and feel' a product displayed in a store.

In the past few years, this 'post dot.com' trend has taken off in the US.

Read the full report in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.