With gas prices rapidly climbing (along with food prices!), it’s pretty hard to watch the news without hearing about soaring prices and worse… inflation. So which online businesses may actually thrive under these circumstances?

Here are some factors to consider:

1) Online businesses must provide customers with products or services they already need. Discounted online Manolo Blahniks designer shoes aren’t quite going to cut it.

2) Nondurable goods may thrive better. Even though it’d make sense for consumers to ditch their SUVs for a hybrid electric car such as the Prius, in the long run, they may prefer to delay a vehicle purchase with such a high sticker price.

3) Online sites that offer free shipping options will directly counter consumers’ gas expense required for retail shopping at tradition brick and mortar stores.

Having said that, which online businesses do I think will thrive in this market? Grocery shopping; office supplies; software that allows for online networking, conferencing, and collaboration; and clearly, shopping sites that offer free shipping! One point to note, the rising cost of shipping will offset increased revenue for these companies, so beware!

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