As someone who makes more purchases online than off, I realize that buying online requires a great deal of faith in the merchant. You have to believe that they are going to deliver what you ordered in a timely fashion. Many times this takes a higher degree of communication to manage customer expectations and increase satisfaction. For example, I recently bought a computer directly from a major computer manufacturer. I have bought several computers from this company over the past couple of years, so they have my account information on file. Well it turns out that the credit card that they had on file for me was one that I had reported lost a couple of weeks prior. Obviously the charge didn't go through and my order was canceled. Now up until this point, the company had done what any merchant would have done. No money, no computer. The problem arose when they failed to let me know that my order was cancelled. So here I am, eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new computer, completely unaware that there is a problem. Had I not called them to see where the computer was, I would have never known. Internet merchants really need to go the extra mile to ensure that they are effectively communicating with their customers. This is the only way to gain that level of cusumer trust that is essential to repeat business.