A click of a mouse and you've bought that lava lamp, perfect for your sister. Another click, and you've bagged that "digivolving" figure for your brother. On to the cheese grater for your mum and the mobile phone cover for your dad.
A final click and those gifts will be wrapped. Now all you've got to do is sit back and wait for the delivery.
Shopping online may be a cool way to deal with Christmas blues, but it's doubtful that many Irish teenagers are actually doing it. The major obstacle is not lack of Internet access but lack of a credit card, the main online currency.
However, if we follow the American way (and we usually do), Irish teenagers may soon by clicking and ordering. A report by eMarketer suggests that more than 10 million US teenagers will make a purchase online by the year 2002, a dramatic increase from the estimated two million who shopped in 1998. And the number of teenagers (age 13 to 17) who will use the web will rise to 15.3 million by 2002.
Last year, the $161 million online spending by US teens accounted for less than 1 per cent of total US online spending. eMarketer reckons this will rise to more than $1.4 billion by 2002, representing 2.2 per cent of total consumer ecommerce.
The development of "e-wallets" and other forms of parent-controlled digital cash accounts may remove the barrier to spending over time. The advantages to shopping online include the "stores" being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There's no need to brave the crowds of Christmas shoppers and the weather as you can shop in the warmth and privacy of your bedroom.
The downside is that you can't see and feel the merchandise, let alone try it on. Then there's paying for, and waiting for, deliveries (what these cost in time and money may be offset by travel and parking costs). There's the off-chance that the delivery won't arrive or, at least, won't get there on time. There's the worry that shopping over the web may not be secure and someone else may be busy clicking away with your credit-card number (see panel for safety tips).
And then there's choice, or lack thereof. In the past, online shopping was fine if you wanted wine, chocolates, books and CDs - but little else.
Today, if Irish teenagers want to shop online, they can choose from a range of home-based websites as well as looking further afield. Most people are familiar with that pioneer of e-commerce, amazon.com. It's synonymous in most people's minds with buying books and CDs online. However, the site has expanded greatly and now offers a choice of books, electronics, toys, kitchen ware, gifts, health and beauty products, among others.
A useful facility allows you to create a wishlist so your friends can log on and find out what you want for Christmas.
The Irish Indigo site (www.indigo.ie) offers free delivery within Ireland and a "seven-day no-hassle return" facility. When we logged on to shop, the daily horoscope was highly appropriate: "Rebellious teens actually want limits," it said.
Back to the bargains. For under £25, Indigo offers a bizarre selection of objects from a Sushi serving set (£21) to an Antler cross-over backpack (£24) and a Barbie Bead Blast doll (£11.49). Christmas wrapping is expensive, at £4.79 per item.
At the Clerys site (www.clerys.com) there is an online offer of a LA street board (essentially a scooter) for £60. This costs £80 in the shop. Similarly a "dreamcatcher" in a space suit is £10 online, £2 cheaper than the shop price. Clerys will donate £1 from each dreamcatcher toy sold to the Angel's Quest charity, to help build respite centres for disabled children.
At www.online.ie, there's a choice of shops from Mad Flowers to Golden Discs to Easons to Compustore. The Hot Deals section is essentially an online bargain basement where you can finds goods from the various merchants at a reduced price.
There are two portal sites, nollaig.net and buy4now.ie, which put consumers in touch with a wide variety of real and virtual shops and services in Ireland and abroad.
Online shopping is still at an embryonic stage in Ireland, according to Ali Murdoch, managing director of Buy4now. There are nearly one million people online in Ireland, but only about 15 per cent have shopped online, with only 6 per cent being regular shoppers.
Shops participating in Buy4now include Arnotts, Atlantic Homecare, Superquinn, Eircom, Easons and Louis Copeland. Buy4now organises delivery and this can be tracked online.
Nollaig.net includes information on concerts, pantomines, theatre, Christmas parties, late-night buses, chauffeur services, winter holidays and an opportunity to e-mail Santa, as well as shopping opportunities.
In its usual random fashion, surfing the net can throw up a wide variety of links. A section in nollaig.net called Love Classified provides links to adult dating sites and a link to a site selling Viagra, probably not the teen Christmas present of choice.
At toys-n-ireland.com there's a limited range of toys featured online but it's possible to order other toys by e-mail. The site is operated by the World of Wonder shop in Mallow, Co Cork.
As with real shopping, there are certain skills involved in getting the best bargains. This generation of teenagers is growing up with the World Wide Web and they are probably the best poised of all consumers to take advantage of what's on offer. Now, all you have to do is persuade your mother or father to give you that credit-card number!
Some websites you might like to try:
www.nollaig.net
www.buy4now.ie
www.clerys.com
www.toys-n-ireland.com
www.indigo.ie
www.online.ie
