As time goes on, more and more of us become more open to buying online. Even people who were very resistant to it are now jumping in and giving it a go.

But will there ever come a day when ecommerce becomes the main way that we all make our purchases?

Despite the fact that internet shopping has become more popular as time has gone by, it’s a long jump from that to it becoming the main way to shop. Some would argue that the future of buying is here already, since so many of us do use the internet for buying whatever it is we need.

But even though internet marketing is attracting our attention like never before, is it really in a position to take the top spot against more traditional shopping?

When it comes down to it there are certain things that we would simply go out and buy, rather than getting them online. The one factor which does become a problem in many cases is postage. Depending on the item we don’t always like to pay postage when we buy online. But having said that there are companies which don’t impose a postage charge – and they must experience a higher volume of orders as a result.

So how else can the high streets compete when they go up against the internet? After all, we know already that price can be an area in which the internet often wins, thanks to the lower overheads. Where can the high streets step ahead of online shopping?

One clear area is that of speed. However fast the ordering process is online, the fastest you can expect to take delivery of an order would be overnight. If you are in a real hurry for something then you can go to your local shops to buy it. That can take less than an hour depending on where those shops are.

You can see the problem. Perhaps we should be asking ourselves whether ecommerce can be an equal with high street shopping, rather than taking over from it entirely. We can certainly expect to see the landscape of our high streets changing in the future. The recession could affect that situation as well. It could be that smaller shops survive, while larger ones run into more trouble.

In the end we really have to wait and see whether the continued online website promotion tactics work in pulling in a higher percentage of customers. Ecommerce undoubtedly has a much better future ahead of it, but whether it is capable of becoming the main source through which we buy things remains to be seen. It has plus points to recommend it, but then so do bricks and mortar businesses. So in order to offer the best array of buying choices and options, we can expect both types of business to remain and develop long into the future.

The question is, will they ever be complete equals – or will one always have the upper hand?

Back in November 2007, NASDAQ decided to create an index of the top one hundred companies that were involved in providing services and/or goods on the internet. But has it made enough of a splash – or are there still plenty of people who still haven’t even heard of it, one year on?

There is no questioning the fact that this was a good idea, at least in part. But like all good ideas it does have its drawbacks as well, not least of which is that the very nature of it means it really only applies in the US. Still, within that area it does have its place and perhaps we should expect a new index such as this one to take some time in establishing itself.

So what does this index tell us? Well in short, it tells us how the top one hundred internet companies that are concerned with internet marketing or other similar services are performing against each other. But since this only applies in that one country we have no way of figuring out how internet businesses are doing as a whole.

But maybe it will pave the way for a more global view of the internet market in the future. Most people would agree that while the high street suffers in times of hardship and recession, the internet never really seems to have many problems. Cheaper prices and the absence of queues and other hassles are indicative of every single online business, and that means people are more likely, not less likely, to flock to the internet when money is tight.

The NASDAQ internet index can certainly back this up as far as those top performing businesses in the US are concerned, and maybe if a similar system was set up in each individual country – or at least the main performers in this arena – we could start to see how many more internet businesses are doing in the current climate.

But as far as the names included on that top one hundred are concerned, there is really no big surprise as to what some of them are. Amazon and Google are both there for example, as are Expedia and eBay – all big names that are known globally. In this sense the NASDAQ index does have value for anyone who lives outside the US, since it gives us a benchmark to compare other sites to. It also allows us to discover what it takes to get on that top one hundred.

Now it is true to say that the vast majority of us will never even get close to getting on that list, but studying the businesses that have made it will no doubt help us to build better web marketing businesses ourselves. After all we can see at a glance what has got these businesses to where they are, and that means we can identify how to improve our own businesses – even if they will always remain on a much smaller scale.

The current economic climate is very troubling for almost everyone. If you are working for someone else you will be concerned about your job security and about the likelihood of having no wage rises for the foreseeable future. And if you are working for yourself you will no doubt be spending more time than ever trying to figure out how to cut costs wherever you can and attract more customers to keep your business healthy – even if that means reducing prices to a certain degree.

We’ve often been told that internet marketing businesses are safer from such economic woes than standard brick-and-mortar ones. And there are certainly more and more cases of local businesses – and even well known names – shutting down because they are no longer able to trade profitably.

But during all this upheaval are internet based businesses really untouchable? Can they really ride out any kind of recession with no issues or problems at all? After all it seems hard to believe that when other businesses are falling left, right and centre, e-commerce companies are staying exactly as they were before.

In truth there will be e-commerce businesses that fall by the wayside during this time, but they tend not to be noticed quite as much as more traditional businesses are. You would certainly spot the difference if a shop you walked past every day suddenly closed down, and yet unless you bought stock from a website continually you probably wouldn’t notice if it went the same way.

And of course websites have lower overheads. Apart from hosting costs and the yearly or twice yearly nominal payment for the domain name, there is really very little else you need to think about to keep a website up and running twenty four hours a day.

It is also true to say that there are plenty of activities you can get involved in online to promote your business without having to spend any money in the process. Search engine optimization is just one example, and it can help get a website ranked higher and seen by more people.

So it is probably fair to say that while e-commerce businesses are still at risk of going under during a recession, they are less likely to than their high street counterparts. So long as the person in charge of the business keeps their head on their shoulders and concentrates on balancing the books and making sure the business isn’t investing too much money when it can ill afford to, an internet venture stands a far better chance of making it for the long term than any other business does.

But if you have an e-commerce business of your own, don’t take this as a sign to sit back and relax and think that you can do no wrong. Now is a more important time than ever to concentrate on attracting customers and keeping your business afloat, so that when any recession passes you will still be there to make more sales in the future.

How many times have you visited a website, seen something that you liked for a few dollars, popped it into your basket… and then discovered that the postage charge effectively doubles the price of the item you want?

This isn’t uncommon online and while postage charges often benefit those who are ordering multiple items from the same website they do tend to sting people who are only looking to buy one thing. That’s why it pays to keep an eye on what you are charging your own customers to buy items from you, because if you get the balance wrong you could end up sending people elsewhere to buy what they want.

Of course it isn’t always as simple as that. While your website marketing may benefit from promoting low postage costs you need to ensure that you won’t lose money by offering rock bottom postage prices. Some companies offer free carriage on everything you buy, but they are few and far between and they tend to be huge in nature – not a small business that is selling perhaps fifty or sixty items a week or less.

The idea of course is that by offering low or free postage you will attract more people to buy from you, but if you aren’t getting the footfall to your website in the first place it could effectively wipe out all your profits in one fell swoop. Think about the type of goods you sell as well; if you are selling temporary tattoos then your postage costs will always be very low, since they will all go in standard envelopes or small postal bags that don’t cost much to mail out. And bigger orders will bring in more profit to cover the slightly higher mailing costs.

If you are selling heavy items however, or anything bulky that cannot go through the normal mailing system, you would almost certainly lose a lot of cash through giving everyone free postage. You need to work out a good balance between having a business that is attractive to your customers and a business that is bringing in a healthy profit for you. If you can achieve both then you are well on the way to a successful business.

Some businesses opt for a flat rate on their postage, which does at least make it easy for your customers to see what they have to pay. And it does work well at encouraging them to order more as they don’t need to pay extra for it. Other people opt for the tiered postage rates which work on weight more often than not.

In the end it may be a case of trial and error to see what works best for you in your e-commerce endeavours, because no two businesses will be exactly the same. And so long as your customers are happy with the service you are giving them, there shouldn’t be too much of a problem, no matter what your postage charges are pegged at.