Fiona Jones used to be an avid shopper till she gave birth to twins.

"Now the queues seem endless, and I can never pay as much attention," the 29-year-old homemaker, who once thought nothing of crossing the Brooklyn Bridge to check out new apparel in stores, said.

With a recession in full swing, the Brooklyn-based mother of one-year-olds now weighs each trip across the river carefully. She makes up for the rest by shopping online -- it saves time and often money, and she can browse through the virtual racks at her own pace.

"It is a lot easier for me to compare discounts and even styles online -- it's just a click away. Now, with the babies and the recession to top it off, it is more important for me to make value purchases," Jones said.

Delivery available at your doorstep, big discounts, easy exchange schemes and online-exclusive clothes and accessory lines have added to make cyber shopping -- even online clothes shopping -- a viable option for many.

Apparel retailers across the board have seen an uptick in online traffic, even as footfall at stores declines.

Stacy Fuerte, for one, finds Target Corp's website a great place for bargains.

"Their clearance section is always full of amazing deals, (and) they always offer free shipping in some way," the 21-year-old senior at San Diego University said.

And it isn't just younger shoppers who frequent cyber shops.

"Older people may be less inclined (to shop online), but it is actually a growing demographic... because once they take the plunge, increasingly they are willing to go forward," Andrew Lipsman, director of Industry Analysis at tracking firm comScore Inc told Reuters.

For merchants, lower fixed costs, improved management of inventory and better discount clearance opportunities contribute to making online retailing attractive.

With cost-cutting being the new mantra, it's "absolutely smart for retailers to focus on growing their online businesses," Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Betty Chen said.

It is cost effective, can operate 24/7 and allows companies to offer expanded sizes and styles online without committing to as big an inventory as they would have to in stores, Chen added.

Reading this , I was zapped the way internet had bought us , do we imagine a get age ahead where we would be doing everything online, the distance and the communication is going to be so fast that it could be a boon

imagine people buying their shirts, trousers , chaddis , skirts, blouse etc etc