Retailers are getting the message loud and clear and see e-commerce as the wave of the future. In just a short period of time, the Internet has changed everything for most businesses. E-companies, now, for the first time, have created truly interactive networks bringing together customers, suppliers, and employees. 

Just look at the dramatic growth of e-businesses in the past few years. Amazon.com, an Internet e-commerce site with half the sales in books and music of retail giant Barnes and Noble, has a market capitalization 18 times B&N's. eToys, with sales of about one-third of a billion dollars, enjoys a market capitalization greater than that of Toys R Us, which has sales of almost $12 billion.

The acceptance of Internet technology by consumers is simply overwhelming, making the Internet the clear choice of the emerging digital economy. With online purchasing, there's no inattentive clerk to deal with, or overcrowded store. From the seat of your armchair, you can shop for anything from a home mortgage to music videos. But the greatest benefit to e-shoppers is comparison shopping. Why run from store to store to find the best price when your fingers can do a better job?

After you have downloaded all that free music, you probably will want to make a tape or CD. Roxy.com http://www.roxy.com  founded in April 1996, is one of the fastest-growing Internet retailers of consumer electronics and personal communications products. Ranked number 107 on the "Internet 500," a list of the nation's top commercial online companies compiled by Inter@ctive Week magazine, Ernst & Young, and MIT, the company lists some of the top electronics products priced at a fraction of what you'll pay major retailers.

http://shopping.yahoo.com  offers everything from prom corsages to automobile parts. Yahoo, one the Web's leading search engines, is such a branded name that it offers most e-shoppers a sense of comfort. What Yahoo has done is create an Internet e-shopping mall. You can find the Internet sites of hundreds of leading retailers in an organized structure. While security issues certainly have been a concern, Internet thievery is more likely at your friendly neighborhood restaurant than at any of the better known e-commerce sites.

With the prom season upon us, www.Promgirl.com   is a dream send. A division of Philadelphia's Bridals by Danielle, this site offers designer dresses starting at $189.00. In addition to the dresses offered by designers like Bari Jay, Jovani, Je Matadi, and Mon Cheri, you also can select prom accessories like gloves and bags to go with the gowns.

Over at http://www.gmbuyer.com, you can pick a General Motors vehicle and get it financed at the same time. The GM site offers something called Best Price. All you have to do is enter your dream car and your ZIP code. A short time later, GM gets back to you with the best price from a dealer in your area.

Finally, after buying all your Internet stuff, you might want to memorialize your purchases with a set of free pictures from http://www.shutterfly.com  One of the Web's leading online digital photo printing services, this site takes your digital images and transforms them into high-quality prints.

The bright side of all of this is that if you can't pay for the things you purchased online, you can at least remember them.