i can see wha al ries is saying about internet business, but i have to say that there are two choices you can make. buy the lowest price, where branding doesn’t matter, because you’re finding that low price from a search engine like pricewatch, or buy from a site consistently because it is able to offer you personalized service that is impossible to get offline, and that becomes more useful as you use it more.
also, ries (or the author ochman, it’s not clear) talks about shoppers using the internet for research but making purchases traditionally, which may be true when your talking about large purchases (cars), but doesn’t make sense for small things that you buy regularly consumer goods (electronics, media, etc) – which you buy a heck of a lot more often than a car.