World Famous Rapper and Businessman Jay-Z’s RocaWear clothing line generates annual retail sales totaling over $700 million while its online store ranks in the Internet Retailer top 400 . RocaWear.com brought in just under $6 million in 2004, thanks to the fact that it is a very good looking site that is easily navigated.

The various departments are clearly defined and divided by clothing type, making it easy to find what you want or just browse by category. The navigation bar appears on every page so less computer savvy visitors won’t get lost. Another notable feature is RocaWear’s use of the LIVEperson utility to provide live support via instant messages to its customers.

Unfortunately, in order to take advantage of live help as a first time visitor, and therefore an unregistered customer, you must fill out an information sheet that might deter consumers who thought the live help option would save them time. Considering first-time unregistered visitors are the ones most likely to be seeking help, it seems unwise to request information that might make them bail-out.

Products are well displayed for quick browsing and the product pages have excellent features like choosing and seeing the color of the product. You can also view the back of everything enabling the consumer to view the product from all angles.

A cool feature of the site is the “Look of the Month” allowing shoppers to view a cool outfit that they might not have put together while shopping online, but could easily have done in a brick and mortar store, while promoting certain items for the company.

The checkout page is well done and clearly delineates required information with a * allowing consumers to omit extraneous information that “wastes” their time.

In addition to his record company, Rockafeller Records, his shoe deal with Reebok, and his own musical prowess, Jay-Z’s site is engaged in a cross-promotion with Samsung. Upon loading the homepage, a pop-up appears advertising a free Samsung phone with any purchase of $100 or more (5 pairs of boxers or 2 shirts). I’m all for “synergy,” but a pop-up on the homepage isn’t the place. It’s annoying and the banner on almost every page is definitely enough exposure.

Besides this transgression, Rocawear.com is well thought out and executed. I doubt Jay will be leaving the online space anytime soon, something Martha Stewart cannot say.