US business-to-business e-commerce will hit $2.7 trillion in 2004 and more than 90%
of firms interviewed described plans to buy and sell on the Internet, according to a
recent Forrester Research study.

The study, "e-Marketplaces Boost B2B Trade," reports that B2B growth will be
accelerated by the development of e-Marketplaces - new models for conducting
e-commerce - such as auctions, exchanges, aggregators and bid systems. By 2004,
Forrester expects these e-Marketplaces to capture 53% of all online business trade.
Hand in hand with this development in B2B, is the estimate that Internet sales
(business to customer) will top $1.35 trillion in the US by the year 2003. (Source:
Masha E. Geller, MediaPost http://www.mediapost.com )

Many netrepreneurs have already taken steps to hitch their wagon to this rising star
and have said goodbye to the traditional shop front, and hello to the cybermall.

A cybermall can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can sell to
customers in every country in the world - if they have an Internet connection.
Nielsen/NetRatings figures show that more and more people are connecting to the
Internet every month - in the US, 122.7 million people (aged 2 years and older) had
access to the Internet in January 2000. This had increased to 123.6 million in the first
week of March 2000.

With a world population of 6 billion, it's easy to see why businesses are excited by the
prospect of cybermalls.

Instead of battling with the rising costs of rent, staff wages, advertising, packing and
shipping, and dealing with the problems of tracking down stock and suppliers - this
new development in e-commerce allows an individual to set up a complete web-based
business in less than 48 hours and receive commissions of 3% to 25% on all sales
made from the site.

One such cybermall is http://www.aShop4All.com. It aims to offer, "simply the best
virtual one-stop shop," according to CEO, John Freeman. "We should have completed
a women's forum, chat line and a consumer contest by the third week of March," he
says. This will complement the wide range of cyber stores already part of the mall. "It's
possible for customers to meet all their shopping needs from this one site," says
Freeman, "from flowers and gifts, books and games, furniture and clothes to office
supplies, financial services and banking, travel arrangements and auctions - there are
even employment services at aShop4All.com."

The inspiration for this concept dates back to 1997, when Freeman's company was
developing and producing bespoke software and building websites; this was followed
by the development of software and hardware to upgrade computer systems for Y2K.
These products were certified by the consultant laboratories to the UK Government,
the State Pentagon and companies such as GEC Marconi.

"It was during this period of time that we realized that with the growth of the Internet
and e-commerce, niche marketing on the Web would be very limited because of the
volume of new users and websites being registered," says Freeman. "We could see
that one-stop shopping sites would be the venue of choice for consumers. Everyone
knows that the info on search engines is fragmented and the biggest complaint one
hears is that it takes too long to find anything, with our concept, if you're looking for a
golf ball you will have a number of outlets to choose from - our software enables
comparisons to be made and the best buy found - the consumer is the big winner."

This view has been supported by recent reports into e-commerce with Forrester
Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) stating that e-Marketplaces must evolve from today's
isolated niche offerings to become highly interconnected one-stop shops - or suffer the
consequences; and the National Retail Federation 2000 Conference in January this

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