Pets.com; Webvan; Boo.com. The road to the online retailing future is littered with the wrecks of internet start-ups once hailed as the pioneers of a retailing revolution.

Yet, four years after the internet bubble burst, online retailing is thriving - set to be the fastest-growing area of retailing this Christmas shopping season, as it was last year. ComScore Networks, a research firm, predicts that online sales for November and December - excluding travel sales and auction sites - will grow 23 to 26 per cent to about $15bn (£8bn) in the US, still by far the largest market.