Surf till you drop

If the mood takes you to buy a new frock when you get home from the pub, take to the Net

Fancy a new frock? No need to shop till you drop, just turn back to your screen and surf the Net.

These days, nothing can escape the march of technological progress and the fashion industry is just the latest to fall in line.

Andrew Davidson, co-founder with his wife Patricia of the upmarket mail- order company Kingshill, is positively evangelical about the possibilities of fashion retail on the Internet. Three months after they tested the water by putting a selection of the Kingshill catalogue pages on-line, the Davidsons feel confident enough to feature their entire range of designer clothing.

"Beyond any shadow of a doubt, this is the future," insists Davidson. "There are about 60 million people on-line around the world at the moment and it will be about 200 million in a couple of years' time. People have less and less time for shopping and service is getting worse in most cases, rather than better. But the desire to spend money on a wide range of goods isn't diminishing - it's growing stronger."

"I need to be in the mood to shop and sometimes that mood can hit me at 11 at night," says one happy Kingshill customer, Carol Dukes, PA for an IT consultancy in Wargrave. "I've shopped on-line in the States and I like the fact that I can shop when I want, for what I want and, best of all, I don't have to talk to anybody to do it. I love the remoteness of it."

Unlike many who are still nervous about the logistics of ordering on- line, Carol isn't concerned about allowing her credit card number to disappear into cyberspace. "Fraud can happen by mail just as easily," she reasons. Andrew Davidson endorses this: "It's actually very safe to order on the Web," he believes. "How do you know what happens to your credit card once a waiter has taken it, for instance?" If you're concerned, look for sites that indicate a Secure Server. (Doubting Thomases can place orders by e-mail and send a cheque by post.)

In reality, retailers run an even greater risk of fraud customers. Since clearers and credit card companies don't verify addresses when numbers are checked, there is no chance of authenticating a card. To overcome this, Kingshill only takes orders from existing customers at the moment.

Once you're selling on-line, however, you're in a global market. Kingshill have customers in Australia, Taiwan and South America. "But it's an illusion to imagine all Internet shoppers must live miles from decent shops," argues Davidson, who reckons that 55 per cent of his customers live within a 15-mile radius of London. "Most of them just don't have time to shop, or find it a chore."

The Internet is also catering for the specialist shopper. Shoeworld has brought relief to customers as far-flung as New Zealand (a man with size 15 feet) and Australia (a woman with very narrow, size one-and-a-half feet). Shoeworld's on-line success (7,000 hits a week) belies its modest offices: the back of a stockroom above a small shoe shop in York.

The trendier high street fashion outlets are also exploiting the possibilities of Internet shopping. Casio watches G-Shock have a fast and furious Website stuffed with club information, for instance. This month Italian club brand Diesel opened an Internet Virtual Store where you can buy anything from five-pocket denim jeans to underwear and perfume. And like Shoeworld, they have an on-line package tracking system that allows you to see at any given time where your order is. Visitors will also find news about new lines and have the chance to interact with Diesel's multilingual PR staff.

Shoe retailers in particular are taking advantage of the Internet and this month saw the launch of Jones the Bootmaker's Website. Later this summer hip, award-winning Middlesbrough shop Psyche is going on-line with what is tipped to be the first Internet offering of Patrick Cox shoes (as well as Hudson, London Base and Jeffrey West) for men and women.

If your troubles are more cosmetic than sartorial, it's now possible to access beauty advice and products on the Internet. The Sher System, run by mother and daughter skincare specialists Helen and Glenda Sher, has pages that offer advice, explanations of skin problems and treatment products. Requests for their water-based skincare system come flooding in from around the globe and particularly from men with acne. Far easier to deal with a user-friendly Website than a glossy girl behind a counter or an uppity shop assistant.

Website addresses:

Kingshill: www.kingshill.co.uk

Shoeworld: www.shoeworld.co.uk

Diesel: www.diesel.com/uk

G-Shock: www.gshop,net

Jones: www.jonesboot maker.com

Vogue: www.condenast.co.uk

Sher: www.sherrco.uk/ skincare/

Pysche: call 01642 888366 for address.