Online sales will continue to increase. Every web page designed to sell a product or market a service must understand the future of online shopping.

There are several important variables that make online sales attractive to the world market. These variables include:

1) Value of the Products/Services offered

2) Seller Reliability and Reputation

3) Ease and security of payment

4) Ease and Security of shipment.

Younger and wealthier shoppers are driving a wave of online sales. Many of these people, who have some familiarity with the web and disposable income, have learned to shop online to compare prices and other comparative data. If shoppers find a superior situation, especially regarding the above 4 crucial variables, they will generally convert to online shoppers.

Online shoppers set shopping clothes. They are abandoning brick-and-mortar stores and malls as the value, reliability, security, and convenience of online shopping improves.

Although the online shopper may not be able to return an item as quickly in some situations as the shopper who can get in and out of a Wal-Mart or Sears when the parking lot isn’t crowded or there isn’t a line for returns

desk, there are many other reasons to shop online.

Sellers of low-mass products (small books, DVDs, lightweight clothing) have a marked sales advantage because the cost of shipping is relatively low. The seller of these items does not need to pay the overhead of a store, staff, parking, utilities, etc. They only pay for storage and shipping, which is becoming more and more automated.

Although people rightly fear bank card fraud, I believe that all card services will continue to improve security and improve buyer dispute processes.

Fraudulent emails sent to credit card holders (and all business accounts) will continue to be a huge problem. As both merchants and buyers become aware of these fraudulent practices, it will become more difficult to exploit people with PayPal or Amazon business accounts.

There is a chance, partly due to fuel prices, that delivery services will be consolidated to some extent in the future, so that you will receive one or two regular deliveries per day of all the goods you have purchased, including groceries, along with the mail and newspaper, etc.

Each person may also have a receiving station service in the future whereby the shopper collects everything from a large, secure safe deposit box. If a delivery is very large or has been piling up for days, a key will be left with directions to a larger, closer overflow box. These changes would reduce security, insurance, and energy costs.

Shopkeepers have experimented with many forms of advertising, delivery, billing, and credit. All of these ideas are enhanced by online transactions. Shopping at multiple supermarket chains will be easier when you get free delivery and easy-to-find price comparisons. You will even be able to subscribe to discount ads for various products.

Online education, especially university-level offerings, has been slow to respond to the potential sale of services over the Internet. Online degrees will become more common, less expensive, and more legitimate with standardized testing procedures that are safe for students. The areas of knowledge in the cognitive domain can be completed entirely online. Educational offerings in the behavioral and affective domains will also be greatly augmented by online offerings and tests.

Larger purchases will also be more prevalent on the Internet, especially for mass-produced items like cars. You can try various models locally, and then browse regional websites for price, color, accessories, shipping costs, taxes, or other charges. This is already being done, but with advances in registration and licensing, as well as financing and insurance online, you can spend 25 minutes on a website and legally drive your new car in the time it takes meet the delivery man on the sidewalk.

The download of tickets and coupons over the Internet is becoming widespread, and this will continue. Insurance policies and other documents can also be downloaded.

Internet social life is here, even simplifying the dating and matching processes. This computerized socialization over the Internet saves time and money. While it may lack some of the intangibles, it also allows for a more objectified set of tangibles, as well as allowing time for the intangibles that happen after selection.

The Internet will also be easier to use: fewer viruses, pop-ups, and host and server issues. This adds up to faster, easier, safer and less expensive shopping.