A new study has shown that more than three-quarters of mums are now on-line.

Meanwhile, another survey has revealed that there are now more women than men social networking on the net. In particular, Facebook reveals that the fastest growing segment is made up of women aged 35 to 55.

The chances are, too, that many families still rely on the woman to make many household purchases. Indeed, there are more women based in the home ¬ and therefore more likely to use the internet more regularly for buying products, including food, furniture, clothing and gifts.

So it stands to reason that on-line businesses and e-commerce sites should keep the purchasing choices of the fairer sex in mind.

We’re not saying here that such sites should be pink and fluffy but if your e-commerce business has items that may appeal to women then make sure they are displayed in an attractive way. For instance, women have been shown to prefer brighter, more “modern” colours on websites, as well as pastels and softer hues.

Women are also renowned for chatting so they are far more likely to pass on information about products via social network sites like Twitter and Facebook. As an e-commerce site you could encourage more feedback and comments about your products, so as to appeal to more women.

And don’t overlook the power of “sales” and “bargains”. Women, in particular, are known to be swayed by discounted products and cut-price deals. They love the thrill of a bargain.

Are there any other feminine focused tips that on-line business owners would like to pass on?

Yet more soaring sales news form the on-line business world. This time it’s on-line giant Amazon that has reported profits up by 71% in the fourth quarter of 2009. The huge rise is explained by the sale of millions of its Kindle e-book readers – and the fact that the site now sells six downloadable books for every 10 hard copy books.

Amazon’s net profit for the final three months of 2009 hit $384 million, up from $225 million during the same period in 2008.

Further proof that e-commerce and on-line businesses are going from strength to strength. What are you waiting for?

Conclusive evidence that on-line retail was the business to be in this Christmas. New figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index show that UK shoppers spent £5.46 billion on-line in December. This amounts to  £88.93 for every person in the UK – and is 17 per cent more than the previous December.

Comparing sales with November 2009, the December figures were 3.8 per cent up.

The report also shows what on-line retailers were saying at the time, that the peak week for shopping was the second week in December. This high came a week later than in 2008, and is thought to be because of postal strikes in November, consumers holding out for bargains and Christmas falling on a Friday.

A spokesman for IMTG is reported as saying: “These figures show that the on-line shopping sector managed to deliver strong double-digit growth in 2009 despite the economy being in recession.”

Leading consumer watchdog Which? recently claimed that numerous e-commerce and e-retail sites are breaking the law – and risk being reported to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

The concerns focus on what is known as the Distance Selling regulations, which includes rules on the time firms give for consumers to return sold or unwanted goods. This applies to anything sold via the telephone, internet or TV.

Customers should have seven working days, from receiving the goods, in which to cancel the order. They then have a reasonable amount of time to return them. Providing cancellation is within that period, consumers are entitled to a full refund.

That means that e-retailers or e-commerce site should not charge an administration or re-stocking fee, unless the purchase was cancelled outside the seven-day period. Retailers are also duty bound to refund P&P fees on the original delivery. Depending on the conditions, the retailer may not be liable for the costs of sending the goods back.

The likelihood is, however, that few sites will be breaking the law knowingly. New e-commerce businesses may not even be aware of the legislation. But the risk of prosecution is still there whether you plead innocent or not.

Which? is also keen to ensure that bigger brand stores do not create an unfair advantage over smaller independents by bending the rules. The watchdog has pledged to keep an eye on sites in the future.

So now you know.

So you’ve decided to launch an e-commerce site on on-line sales website. Now you’re going to need to have the website designed. Of course, you’ll want to employ a reputable web designer but here we bring you a few top tips to think about:

Get a brand: Your business logo is a vital ingredient. Pay a professional to design a logo that says a lot about your business or a logo that is striking and won’t be forgotten. Then make sure the log is displayed in a prominent place on the website – but not so big that it deflects the main message of your website.

Home in: Take you time to think about the layout, design, messages and content of your home page. This is what visitors will see first ¬ and it’s the place to capture customers with engaging design and content.

Get the FAQs: A FAQ page is a good idea. It will be a place to display frequently answered questions. It also saves lots of potential hours of customer support.

Make contact: You want customers to know that they can get in contact with you. They will be more likely to trust your business if they know there is someone at the end of a phone line.

Find out more: The “About Us” page gives you the chance to sell your business to potential customers and to tell people about your company mission statement.

Rules and regs: A “Terms of Use” page is important for your e-commerce site, outlining copyright, legal terms, disclaimers and agreements.

Keep it in order: An order form is vital for actually selling a product as it is the place where you collect the customer’s address.

On a roll: Once you have the home page designed make sure that the rest of your pages look similar and have uniform colours and content. You want the site to look professional all the way through.

Blog it: Blogging can be a great way to keep customers up to date with news of sales, information about your products etc.

Be sociable: Sharing information via Twitter, Facebook and offers a great potential for e-marketing. It’s a good idea to include these links on your site.

A recent study has shown that almost half of marketers include “forward to a friend” features in their emails – but only 13 per cent make it easy to share the content on social networks.

Another study reveals that simply including sharing buttons in a marketing e-mail leads to a 25 per cent increase in reader interaction, as well as a surge in inbound traffic from social networking sites.

Clearly with the potential for a great deal of e-marketing via social media sites, more than 50 per cent of marketers are missing a trick.

Here we bring you a few tips about “sharing”:

1) Share buttons are easy to integrate into e-mails. If your e-mail consists of multiple articles, ensure that each points to a page on the internet and that your Facebook or Twitter share buttons are setup to share the URL of each article.

2) Ensure that all e-mails include links to your presence on various social sites. Calls to action in a sidebar or in the header like “Follow Us on Twitter” or “Become a Fan on Facebook” will help people connect with you on social sites.

3) Then you might want to start cross-promoting. Remind your Twitter followers or Facebook fans that you have an e-mail newsletter. Once they sign up, they could be the ones most likely to share content with their own networks on social sites