That means that the products pictured on www.shoplaytonhills.com may not necessarily be on store shelves, because NearbyNow uploads all the merchandise and does not differentiate among the offerings at different store locations. A customer e-mail — which NearbyNow promises to reply to within 10 minutes — will nail down whether the store carries the item and if it's in the customer's size or favorite color.

"I'd say we get at least three calls a day" from NearbyNow, said Lance Perry, manager of the Sports Authority at the Layton Hills Mall.

He estimates he gets about one sale a day from the service.

If Perry's store doesn't have the item that a customer is seeking through Nearbynow, he finds it at other Sports Authority stores along the Wasatch Front with the hopes that they will shop within the same company.

More than 10 percent of retailers' sales are online, according to Forrester Research, which also concluded that the percentage of Americans shopping online will continue to increase.

Brian Davis, a professor of business administration at Weber State University, praised the online effort by Layton Hills.

"I think it's a clever idea and something that serves the customer," he said. "If they're getting people in there, they're pretty likely to look around and buy other things as well."

But Layton resident Tiffany Galbraith, who was shopping at the mall Thursday, said she has no intention of using the site. She says it takes the fun out browsing in stores.

"If I want to shop, I just come here and do it," she said.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com