NEW YORK -- Avon Products Inc.'s recently appointed chief executive, Andrea Jung, is surfing onto the Web to tackle the company's oldest problem: how to move the traditional cosmetics marketer into the future without abandoning the past that made it successful in the first place.

In an era when a direct-sales force of "Avon ladies" ringing doorbells may seem a quaint throwback, Avon still relies on its direct-sellers for 98% of sales. It has long walked a tightrope between opening up new sales channels and reassuring its representatives of their own value. Ms. Jung's predecessors did that while moving the company into retail outlets, but now Ms. Jung faces the challenge of moving Avon into electronic commerce, selling its wares directly to consumers over the Web while bringing the venerable ladies along.

Avon estimates it saves $1 to $3 for every U.S. order processed over the Web instead of by its traditional method. That could mean annual savings of between $650 million and $1.95 billion if Avon processed all of its 650 million orders world-wide over the Internet. And industry analysts say a high-profile e-commerce site would likely help the company ditch its dowdy image and draw a more technically savvy-and perhaps more upscale-customer.

When Avon begins implementing its Internet plans next year, it will encourage representatives to set up their own Web pages linked to the Avon site, allowing customers to fill orders through their representatives' pages.

The Web presents "an opportunity to get new customers who are currently not our shoppers," says the 41-year-old Ms. Jung, who is known as a strong marketer. But she says the online logistics "would be monumental if we had just one Web site [where] we were trying to take customers away from the reps."

Avon says it plans to spend $60 million over the next three years to develop the site; it has chosen International Business Machines Corp. as its technology partner. A June launch date is set.

Avon, though, is arriving a little late to the Web. While it set up a site in 1997, it hasn't pursued an aggressive e-commerce strategy. Now it must battle a slew of Internet competitors including Procter & Gamble Co.'s Reflect.com, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA's Sephora.com, and venture-capital-backed Gloss.com, Beauty.com and Eve.commost of which have established a strong e-commerce presence. "If there's ever been an industry with a first-mover advantage, it's the Internet," says Salomon Smith Barney's Wendy Nicholson.

Still, Ms. Nicholson says Avon needs to hop on e-commerce. One advantage, she notes, is Avon's tremendous brand loyalty among customers. "I don't think you can argue about Avon having a terrifically powerful global brand," she says. "I think that the challenge for Andrea Jung is how to take the relatively antiquated distribution model into the next millennium."

In Avon's first global advertising campaign, which Avon says is to begin in February and could cost as much $90 million, Avon plans to tout hip images of "e-representatives" to let younger consumers know Avon isn't their grandmother's makeup company anymore.

Some reps aren't sure what the Net will mean. "If I felt like I was going to be hung out to dry, I might be a little leery," says Tyler Chatten, 32, a representative for four years who sells Avon products in her Longmont, Colo., community. She thinks the plans may attract customers but isn't sure her clients will take to the Web. "It's so impersonal," she says. Her customers, who sometimes bake cookies or play with Ms. Chatten's eight-year-old stepdaughter when the two come calling, would "truly miss the interaction."

Ms. Jung is taking pains to reassure the direct-sellers that they are "the lifeblood of Avon." She has pledged to keep 95% of the sales with the reps, at least over the next three years. She's encouraging them to get their homes Internet-ready. Avon will arrange discounted deals on computers and Internet service, as well as assisting its direct-sellers in setting up their own Web pages. "We still believe very passionately that direct selling is a very viable strategy for growth," Ms. Jung says, but "we need to surround it and add other venues of access."

Avon is also boosting incentives for direct-sellers who participate in a new recruiting program. The company is about to expand its "sales leadership program," which allows participating representatives to earn part of the commissions of representatives they recruit. The program began in the U.S. two years ago, and now about 11,500 of Avon's 500,000 U.S. reps are recruiting through the program. Worldwide, Avon has about 2.8 million representatives; global expansion is key; Avon gets 60% of sales from overseas, in markets some say are more conducive to direct selling.

In addition to Internet expansion, Ms. Jung has boosted Avon's retail outlets. The company opened its first U.S. store last year and now has about 50 outlets in the U.S. and several thousand abroad-sometimes operated by representatives but mostly by traditional employees.

The company also wants to win more sales from a spruced-up catalog. Avon has published the brochure since its founding in 1886, but it's hoping more-glamorous pictures, heavier paper and a bigger size will boost sales. Avon launched a version in Britain in April and says the average order there has risen 13% since the introduction. The new catalog arrives in the U.S., Mexico and the Philippines next year.

Ms. Jung hopes these changes can boost annual growth to about 6%, twice last year's rate. An ambitious goal, considering that Avon said in September it would miss fourth-quarter earnings targets. Despite a 22% rise in Avon shares since Ms. Jung was appointed Nov. 4, the stock is still down 45% from its 52-week high of $59.125 on April 19. At 4 p.m. yesterday in New York Stock Exchange trading, Avon closed unchanged at $32.625.

Indeed, Ms. Jung's elevation to the top post from chief operating officer was viewed by some analysts as a sign the board had run out of patience with her predecessor, Charles Perrin. When Avon announced Mr. Perrin's retirement, however, a company spokesman said Mr. Perrin's decision to retire had nothing to do with the company's financial performance, and that Mr. Perrrin initiated his retirement.

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               Is the Web Avon's Calling?

  Cosmetics-maker Avon is trying to make Internet inroads without
alienating its door-to-door salespeople.

                   Facts and Figures

 -- Budget for first global ad campaign in 2000: $80 million -- $90
million

 -- Projected Internet spending next year: $30 million

 -- Projected Internet spending over the next three years: $60 million

 -- Sales Reps: 500,000 in the U.S. and 2.8 million world-wide

 -- Sales: 60% outside U.S. and 40% within U.S.

  Sources: Avon, Baseline