I just heard some talking head say increases in holiday purchases made online were due to bad weather and high gas prices.

What will be the next excuse? Hailey’s Comet?

It was 85 degrees in Miami, Fla., and people were buying online. If gas were 50 cents a gallon, people would still be buying more online.

It’s called reality.

Online purchases are going to continue increasing. Any experts trying to deny that are probably still dealing with rotary dial telephones and thinking about getting a laptop. Or they’re businesses dealing with the past, such as fax machine manufacturers or phone book printers.

The question is not why more online sales are occurring - that’s obvious; people want things. The question really is: What are you doing to get your share of those sales?

What do you have for sale? What values do you offer online? Are they products or services that have value? How do they make life easier and better? What enticements do you have? How easy is it to buy? Can you prove it? Do people visiting your website trust you enough to enter a credit card number and pull the trigger to purchase?

Think about things you have purchased online in the past year. You wanted something, or needed something, and you went to www.something.com and bought it.

And you’re probably doing it more and more. Convenience, availability, ease of purchase, fits your timeframe, and you trust the seller.

If your need is more urgent, many sellers offer overnight delivery. About the only thing you can’t do online is reach through your computer and pull out the product.

Let’s go back to why for a moment and get to the root cause. People are trusting the Internet now. Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and other search engines have made the Internet the first place to get information. Anything from a airline schedule to the weather. Anything from the date, time, and place that Mickey Mantle hit his 536th home run, to the perfect recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

Anything you sell in your store or business can be purchased online. The only question the consumer has is who are they going to buy from?

The Internet is a trusted resource for information and purchase follows trust.

Think about your last automobile purchase. Did you go online to get information before you bought the car? Of course you did. You went online to gain or reinforce information to make an informed purchase.

If you can gain all this information so easily online, why not just take the next step and buy it?

Each year, more and more computer literate people are entering the purchasing marketplace. They understand the immediacy and power that the Internet provides.

It’s especially true when you’re talking younger shoppers. They don’t care about the weather or the price of gasoline. Their decision to buy online is based on personal choice and convenience. Value offered, and value perceived.

Brick and mortar stores have hours of operation. Maybe 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Or 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. But the Internet has no such limits. The Internet’s hours of operation are 24/7.

I buy stuff at midnight. So do you. I’m buying more stuff online. And so are you. And so does everyone. It’s not something to measure. It’s the new reality. And getting more real by the click.

Internet growth is still young. It’s growing.

The only question you have to ask yourself is: What are you doing about it? How is your business taking advantage of it, and how prepared are you to capture your share of it?

My website - www.gitomer.com - underwent its fifth transformation this past year. We improved everything, including making it easier to purchase. We added video descriptions for every product, and made the customer experience more informative and more fun. The result of my six-figure investment? Online sales have doubled.

My website is also a resource for sales and customer loyalty information I know my customers want and need. And a ton of it is free. People come to my website by the thousands to get my valuable information at no cost, and then they buy something while they are there.

If you want more ideas on how to make your website more valuable, go to www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first-time visitor, and enter the words "site value" in the GitBit box.

Contact Jeffrey Gitomer at salesman@gitomer.com or (704) 333-1112. Gitomer is president of Buy Gitomer in Charlotte, N.C., and the author of "The Little Red Book of Selling." He gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.trainone.com. Sales Moves appears weekly.