Online Shopping Trends – Shopping Freedom is Just a Mouse Click Away!

Many Internet business analysts are getting cramps in their arms charting the online shopping trends of today’s go anywhere, do anything society. That’s because for the 4th consecutive year, online shopping trends have shown another big spike in the amount of goods and services people shop for online.

Much of that business can be attributed to increased consumer confidence in online shopping and increased security protocols. Nowadays, when folks see that a site is security certified, they feel a little better about using their credit card to shop for goods and services online.

A lot of this business, though, can also be attributed to the rise of the affiliate marketing industry, something that has really come into it’s own in recent years.

Affiliate marketing is a special type of advertising used in web sites and is basically a deal set up between web store owners and web site developers. In return for directing traffic toward business sites, these "affiliate marketers" get paid a commission in return for both the amount of people driven to the site or the amount of sales they generate through their web pages.

Affiliate marketing these days makes use of web site ranking systems, close networking, and of course, you, the shopper, looking for a great deal.

There are a few other reasons why Internet marketing and affiliate programs have become such a hot commodity in the Internet business world, including increased consumer confidence in online shopping (as mentioned), costly traditional advertising methods, and of course, the growth of the behemoth known as the Internet.

It is amazing to note that the Internet is still such a new device, and yet it is one of the fastest and most powerful media tools ever given to humanity. Think about it for a moment. Television, Radio, and Print Media forms are all controlled by companies that make corporate decisions. On the Internet, a massive online company can be run by two guys out of their garage (this is exactly how Google got its start!).

It is only reasonable then, that people shopping on the Net would be a little leery of the security levels available and the chance that their credit or banking information could be used for evil.

Internet trailblazers such as Microsoft knew consumer confidence was the key to getting virtual shopping off the ground, and they work hard to develop the security features that will make people feel safe to shop online.

Credit card companies, too, quickly saw the potential for Internet shopping, and have since installed things like online shopping insurance for people uncomfortable using their plastic charge cards in this manner. If you ever get scammed or have a problem with your online credit purchases, many credit card companies will happily refund your money and then set their claws on the company that wronged you. Now that’s buying power!

There are other bonuses for online shoppers, of course. No line-ups, for one. No annoying mall shopping carts with broken wheels and snotty nosed kids crying because their parents won’t get them what they want.

When shopping online, consumers can sit down, have a coffee, wear their slippers and their bathrobes, not have to worry about their hair or parking, and just click through sale after sale. Comparison shopping couldn’t be any easier. And thanks to courier companies getting in on the act, you never need wait longer than a day or two to get those all important purchases delivered right to your door.

No wonder so many companies are shaking their heads at conventional advertising and instead looking to the "virtual" world to attract online shoppers.

These days, it’s more expensive than ever to provide quality multi-media advertising for your company. Print advertising rates are expensive and are prone to the whims of fickle editors; television advertisements are lost under a wash of over produced, played-every-five-minutes commercials from large corporations, and radio, well. Radio just hasn’t been the same since the advent of the television, has it?

That’s why so many companies look to marketing on the Internet. And for a lot of them, that means affiliate marketing is the way to go.

As far as advertising, the affiliate marketing deal couldn’t be better. A company pays their advertising money either after they’re affiliate member has sent a certain amount of clients their way or after one of these clients has actually bought something from the company in question.

That’s nearly 1-to-1 advertising! Nobody gets those kinds of numbers! Think again. Affiliate marketers do, and that’s why they work so hard to get great looking, professional websites that will drive up sales for their affiliates merchants.

Companies love this because they work for commissions. Can you imagine television commercials that worked for commission? Imagine television companies only getting paid for every shopper that walked through a door and bought something?

Hard to believe as it sounds, it is actually a super-effective way for online businesses to do their work online. Once a website is out, it can start churning out the re-directed online shoppers and pumping up sales on both ends.

Affiliate sites make use of reviews, helpful how-to articles, and other points of information. Things that customers would like to read about make the best articles. Then, helpful suggestions and recommendations are made in the course of the articles, which are actually marked hyperlinks that send shoppers to a site relevant to the article they were just reading.

For example, an article on great cell phone packages could contain two or three links to companies offering special deals for Internet subscribers.

It’s exactly this kind of layered marketing that has caused such an incredible swell in the Internet markets.

Hard to believe that there is a generation of people out there right now that will have almost no memories of the world before the Internet, isn’t it? It’s true.

It’s also true that the trends towards continued growth and expansion of the world wide web that now spans all the continents and reaches billions of people across the world will continue to grow and develop as the world becomes more comfortable with the online shopping environment.

High-speed Internet has brought a whole new industry of downloading and uploading massive amounts of data never before possible. Now it’s possible to download movies and music in a pay-per-click environment and that has created "virtual music stores" that allow you to shop for, and buy, single songs or whole movies, download them, and make your own copies.

Of course, there is also an incredible amount of conventional businesses offering their services to an online clientele. Purchase baggage claims or plane tickets off an airline website, or purchase and print tickets to the theatre or the movies. These days, anything is possible.

This all continues the growth of the online sales industry. Studies are showing that as computers become more integrated into everyday modern life, teens are now spending less time in front of the television and more time on computer video games, the Internet, and cell phones – soon to be connected to the Internet on a massive level themselves.

Looking at these numbers, you’d think more online business analysts would have invested in an arm brace or a step ladder by now. If they know what’s good for them, they should seriously consider it.

Consumer confidence in online shopping is driving the latest Internet shopping trends and affiliate marketing.

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Bill Schnarr is a single parent and freelance writer who works from his home in Calgary, Alberta. As well as having dozens of online and print publishing credits, you can also look for him in the upcoming "Chicken Soup for the Single Parents Soul" due out in February 2005.