Of course, we now see a very large number of customers looking up their neighborhood pizza maker with search engines. They will try Yahoo or HotBot before turning to more traditional Yellow Pages. The restaurant owner no longer wonders why he should be online.

As more and more businesses get their own web sites, we're seeing a number of very smart ways to integrate an online presence with your existing business. Here are top five ways.

1. Your web site gives customers a way to quickly search through your big selection. If you have an auto parts store, you may have many square feet of products to choose from. You may have hundreds more items that can be ordered and delivered quickly.

In past, it might have been difficult for customers to easily find what they were looking for, or even be aware that you could get it for them.

Your web site makes it easy to type in name of a product, then see those products with descriptions and your prices. There are a number of fine online catalog software applications. If your selection isn't Walmart-sized, I suggest using a simple search engine to help people find what they want among your pages. Try free search service at atomz.com.

2. Use your web site to make it easy to find updates in your rapidly changing inventory. We often buy computers and musical equipment from PCMall.com and MusiciansFriend.com. Both companies provide some of lowest prices in their industries. They do so by buying up discontinued items.

Three years ago, people started to use Internet to buy and sell goods. Two years ago, during 1998 holiday season, over 1 million AOL members bought at least one item online.

This gave us a small hint of how big online shopping might get.

In 1999's holiday season, e-commerce exploded in all directions, taking its toll on traditional malls and shops. This year, even stores like Kmart and Walmart are spending millions to promote online shopping, bringing more people than ever on board shopping wave of future.

Although all of us can see what's happening, only a small percentage of general population is actually capitalizing on Internet shopping revolution. E-commerce is here to stay. How long will it be before rest of us get on board? Why haven't we joined revolution?

For many of us, answer to that question is that we simply don't know where to start or what to do once we begin.

Most of us probably think we need to have expertise in world of web design and HTML, or perhaps an MBA. However, there are plenty of experts out there who specialize in building web sites and making everything work. And you don't need an MBA, all you need is a goal and a plan of action.