Dawn Lepore, CEO, drugstore.com

Drugstore.com is launching three new websites, as it seeks to extend the reach of its e-commerce business amid growing competition in the online health and beauty markets.

The Bellevue-based company recently launched a men's health and grooming site called At His Best and another one called The Natural Store selling "natural" health and beauty products and household cleaners . Spokeswoman Anne Marshall said a third site is coming soon that will be a “medicine cabinet” for a specific, unidentified medical condition.

Drugstore.com has been increasing its use of so-called “micro sites” around specific product categories to drive sales. Such websites use the company’s existing product selection, e-commerce technology and shipping infrastructure, and thus are relatively inexpensive to launch. The main cost is marketing the new websites to consumers.

Micro sites “enable them to serve the customer in a very relevant way,” said Brian Walker, a Seattle-based e-commerce analyst for Forrester Research. “This is something we expect many other retailers to be pursuing.”

Drugstore’s current portfolio of websites includes beauty.com, which sells makeup supplies; visiondirect.com, lensquest.com and lensworld.com for contact lenses; and sexualwellbeing.com for sex products. Drugstore is also buying a company called Salu that operates skinstore.com, a website for skin creams and other cosmetics (the $36 million Salu deal is expected to close this quarter).

Drugstore.com CEO Dawn Lepore in October described micro sites as a “growth initiative” and said they focus on “higher margin categories.” The company has said it plans to roll out five to eight such micro sites this year.

Drugstore.com faces growing competition from big players. In recent months, Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s largest retailer, added a raft of personal care products — including razors, toothpaste, and vitamins — to its online store. And Procter & Gamble, maker of everything from Pampers to Pantene shampoo, is planning to sell products directly to consumers through a new website.

Another strategy drugstore.com is pursuing is powering the ecommerce sites of other retailers. The company recently signed a deal to develop contact lens sites for Luxottica, owner of the LensCrafters and Pearle Vision optical store chains. Drugstore.com also handles online orders for over-the-counter (non-prescription) products for Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefits manager, and the Rite Aid chain.

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