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The news has been full to the brim of stories about the so called 'credit crunch', banks failing and being nationalised (Northern Rock) or forcibly sold for a knockdown price (Bear Stearns) to a competitor.

Is this all an over-reaction, are we really seeing the first signs of a major recession? Or are there some positives amongst the doom and gloom?

Well, it's true to say that bad news sells better than good news, a good recent example was when there were numerous reports of a slow down on the high street during the Christmas period. Marks & Spencer confirmed this, however, their huge growth in online sales hardly got a mention. And this is a trend seen across most of the major retailers.

This is most definitely a glimmer of hope, what is really happening is not necessarily a slow down in the consumer economy but a change in shopper behaviour precipitated by the internet.

It seems that people still want to buy stuff, but what's changed is that they want to get what they need at the best price possible - even a few pennies less can make the difference and the internet makes this easy and comfortable. In addition, there just doesn't seem the appetite for traipsing around the shops or phoning them all up to make a comparison. This could well be due to the effect of out of town developments not necessarily having all the competition within a small area as it was when town centres were the main shopping areas.

Statistics recently published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in the UK indicate that total online trading was worth £130 Billion in 2007 and internet retail alone is worth £4 Billion per month, showing a 30% growth.

What this means in real terms is that those of us who are already successfully trading online should either feel no effects of a downturn and may even see sales increase.