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The amount of time people spend researching, checking prices, visiting stores and seeking advice from friends tends to rise in proportion to the value of the product they are thinking of buying. A new car is one of the biggest purchases people make, and buyers typically spend four to six weeks mulling over their choices. So why are some people now walking into car showrooms and ordering a vehicle without even asking for a test drive? Or turning up at an electrical store and pointing out the washing machine they want without seeking advice from a sales assistant? Welcome to a new style of shopping shaped by the Internet.

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More people are buying products online, especially at peak buying periods. The total value of e-commerce transactions in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2004 reached $18 billion, a 22% increase over the same period in 2003, according to the Department of Commerce in Washington DC. But that just represents 2% of America's total retail market and excludes services, such as online travel, the value of goods auctioned on the Internet, and the $34 billion-worth of goods that individuals trade on eBay.

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If you consider the Internet's wider influence over what people spend their money on, then the figures escalate out of sight. Some carmakers in America now find that eight out of ten of their buyers have logged on to the Internet to gather information about not just the exact vehicle they want, but also the price they are going to pay. Similarly with consumer electronics, nowadays if a customer wants to know which flat-screen TV they should buy, they are likely to start their shopping online even though the vast majority will not complete the transaction there.

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The Internet is moving the world closer to perfect product and price information. The additional knowledge it can provide makes consumers more self-assured and bold enough to go into a car dealership and refuse to bargain. As a result, the process of shopping is increasingly being divorced from the transaction itself. Consumers might surf the web at night and hit the shops during the day. Visiting bricks-and-mortar stores can provide the final confirmation that the item or group of items that they are interested in is right for them.

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Far from losing trade to online merchants, stores that offer the sorts of goods people find out about online can gain from this new form of consumer behaviour. This is provided they offer attractive facilities, good guarantees and low prices.

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Merchants who charge too much and offer poor service, however, should beware. The same, too, for shaky manufacturers: smarter consumers know which products have a good reputation and which do not, because online they now read not only the sales blurb but also reviews from previous purchasers. And if customers are disappointed, a few clicks of the mouse will take them to places where they can let the world know.

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Some companies are already adjusting their business models to take account of these trends. The stores run by Sony and Apple, for instance, are more like brand showrooms than shops. They are there for people to try out devices and to ask questions of knowledgeable staff. Whether the products are ultimately bought online or offline is of secondary importance. Online traders must also adjust. Amazon, for one, is rapidly turning from being primarily a bookseller to becoming a mass retailer, by letting other companies sell products on its site, rather like a marketplace. Other transformations in the retail business are bound to follow.