It seems like only a few years ago, when shopping online was akin to the wild, wild West -- limited to use by those with true grit and an adventurous spirit. And, is it any wonder? With so few stores set up to sell their items through the Internet, who among us had the time to waste, when we could just as easily do our shopping at the "brick and mortar" equivalents. This left this new frontier mainly to those in pursuit of those items not readily found in stores at that time, the exotic: Persian rugs, rare books, and other collectibles. Years ago, if you told someone you had no qualms about shopping online, that you willingly provided your credit card information to anonymous customer service reps free floating in cyber space, most figured your credit probably wasn't all that great to begin with.
Those very "brick and mortar" stores, which had once declared online shopping a fad, an endeavor doomed to go the way of pogo sticks and drive-in theatres, have had to bow down and acknowledge the success of industry giants like: Amazon.com and ebay. These same naysayers, which now credit their online enterprises with providing the lion's share of their revenues, will do whatever's necessary to encourage customers to shop online, advertising their largest discounts through their website; with these discounts often considerably greater than the ones offered by their mail order catalogues and landlocked sites.
Today's online shopping isn't limited to exotic Persian rugs anymore. It's comprised of stores selling everything from: hardware, clothing, magazines and carpeting to gourmet food, cigars and tires. Then you also have your Bombaycompany.com, Kmart.com, EthanAllen.com, Snan.com