Internet shopping is now big business and the USA, with the worlds largest online population, leads the way.

The world's biggest shopping mall - a vast temple to consumerism has an enormous choice of products, is no respecter of national borders and all the competition is just one click away. You don't need to shop till you drop or subject yourself to the hassle of car parking and aching feet - just chill out, lay back and do it on the web.

The new facts of life for retailers are these: for the shopper the location of an online store is irrelevant. A shop can sell its products to the world and a global market means global competition. Therefore, international price wars are about to make a nonsense of national pricing structures.

This can already be seen in the retail music business, where the consumer pays more in the UK for CDs but gets a better deal in the USA. Now though, because of the Internet, British consumers can put two fingers up to the likes of HMV and Virgin. Look at the figures and you can see the benefits of WWW shopping. Buying six CDs from a high street shop in the UK will cost you around £80. Purchase those same CDs from an American web site and you save over £20 - this includes the shipping costs.

So what should we expect from an online music shop? - Low prices, a vast choice, news and reviews, a track list with the ability to hear samples and plenty of supplementary info on your favourite band. Of course a good search engine and navigation are a basic requirement.

So let's see how UK and USA web sites shape up.

Music Stop - http://www.music-stop.co.uk

This British site has a disadvantage in the price war. Its design is simple and uncluttered but the navigation is appalling - you keep losing your shopping basket.

The search engine is basic and you have to know what you want because there is no shop window of products. When you find your CD it lets you see the track list and price but there is no historical info. Worst of all there is no facility for listening to the tracks.

There is a top 10 list but its presentation does not allow shopping for new or other types of music and its absurd links section takes you to other totally unrelated web sites.

Music Stop has no added value or benefits to the consumer and fails to deliver in all departments.
Designed by Clarity Online Limited.

Action Records - http://www.action-records.co.uk

This way cool looking British site offers many choices including the latest in music fashions.

Good Navigation, using a simple two-window frame set, means everything is always just one click away. Unfortunately, you can only browse Action Record's inventory by knowing the artist's name or title but you can download the entire catalogue and browse it off-line at your leisure.

There are no track lists, which is a definite problem for those who want to make sure a certain song is on their CD. Also as no history is available it is not possible to know if this is the latest CD by the artist.

However, there are some good features such as an excellent music related links section and a second hand department. Prices are not too high but ultimately they will lose out on a lot of sales due to the very low prices from the USA.

On the whole Action Records is a good site and cost effective if you only want a couple of CDs or you're after a second-hand title.
Design by LuluMonde

OK.... Now for the Price War Sites, because in America it's not good enough to have it all, it's got to be cheap.

CD NOW... - http://www.cdnow.com

For all you information Junkies, this site is really rocking. A clean well thought out design, easy navigation and a superb search engine allows you to search by release date, artist, song title, record label and sound track as well as all the import titles. The really clever thing is it will do it in a choice of 10 languages.

You can listen to tracks from a CD using the Real Player plug-in or view the review it got in Rolling Stone Magazine as well as other publications. There is an exceptional help section, which answers all your questions such as the shipping cost to practically every country on the planet.

Price and information will determine the winner and CD NOW often has price sales such as the recent $10.00 off any purchase. This site is truly the competition and a resounding hit with any music aficionado.
Designed by CD now

Tower Records - http://www.towerrecords.com

Tower is the site every other music site should aspire to be like. It not only looks cool and has all the bells and whistles, but with over 200,000 music titles in all categories as well as Laser-discs, videos, singles, mini-discs and vinyl, it has something for everyone. It's the ultimate in one stop shopping.

Tower has thought of everything such as the option to view the site in text mode and even nice little touches like music business quotes at the bottom of every page. The Top 1000 list is useful; if you haven't bought CDs in a while, you can quickly be brought up to date by cruising it.

The only irritant is that as often as you order from Tower, you still have to type in all your information afresh. Nevertheless, Tower gets major fingersnaps for a superb service with plenty of extra value and is a number one hit in every department.
Designed by MTS, Inc. Tower Records

The American music sites easily trounce the UK sites. However, they could all learn something from Amazon. In general though, commercial web sites from across the pond offer an object lesson to British retailers. Americans want your money and make it easy for you to give it to them. They incorporate loads of benefits, added value, are entertaining and present it all with character. More importantly, services and prices are competitive.

The bottom line is, every high street store's rival is now just next door.