The taste test - two teens spend a wet day Windows shopping

Amazon.com, billing itself as `Earth's Biggest Selection', is a long-established e-tailer with an increasingly diverse product range.

Irish e-commerce sites include dedicated online companies such as online.ie and established bricks-and-mortar retailers such as Clerys.

`It's brilliant. There's loads to choose from and prices are very reasonable."

Laura, who hates real-life shopping, is enthralled by the virtual experience: no more walking around shops for hour after boring hour. "I hate standing looking at clothes." Clicking a mouse, sitting down, chatting to your friends and discussing purchases is much more fun, she reckons.

Laura is tall - she plays under-15s basketball for Ireland - and she finds it difficult to get shoes. The web seemed to have the answer, with women's shoes up to size 11 on offer (Banana Republic).

Fiona, 14, also enjoys the online browsing but says she will still go to the real shops for her Christmas presents. She wants to see the goods before she buys.

Once online, Fiona and Laura don't "waste" much time on Irish sites, particularly those linking to Irish shops, although they liked the homepage on nollaig.net with the snowflakes falling down the screen. "Why would you bother with these sites, when you can go and walk around these shops and just get the stuff rather than waiting for delivery?" asks Fiona.

Their favourite online shops are those (usually US) sites which offer the weirder kind of gift. Many US sites won't post to this side of the Atlantic, so this is really the online equivalent of window shopping. In yahoo.com they enjoyed the "dream gadgets" ranging from Nouveau Derm moisturising socks ($49.99) to the Electro-Stun bug zapping swatter ($24.99) to Robo Pooch ($24.99).

"It's brilliant," says Fiona, echoing Laura's earlier comment. "You can choose gifts in the price range $0 to $600. We found collectibles like a teddy bear and polar bear for $2.99." Laura is also excited to find Christmas ornaments: Santa in a truck, snowmobile or train - and even a "dear Santa we've been good" ornament.

ebubbles.com is also a hit, with soaps from Japan. Laura says: "You can choose from rice bran, black sugar, honey, yuzu citrus and festive soaps like gingerbread men, gel candles in gold and silver and leaf tumblers."

The only online shopping experience they had previously was with amazon.co.uk, where Fiona had ordered a Harry Potter book months in advance of its publication. So, venturing into amazon, Laura found a present for her two-year-old cousin - talking Dragon tales that light up.

Online shopping is not a real option for Laura and Fiona: like most Irish teenagers, they don't have credit cards. Fiona says she would consider giving the cash to an adult and using his or her card.

They are also somewhat wary. Laura says: "We've heard about a lot of problems - people taking money from bank accounts and that sort of thing."

All in all, an amusing way to pass a wet afternoon, but no help when it came to filling in that Christmas list.