Somehow, I've never thought it would be so hard finding a gift for Mom. I guess I was thinking that being her child, I would know what she wanted. I've followed her around the house when I was a child; I've seen her cooking all sorts of meals, watching sad movies on the TV, and generally fussing about the house. I know that she likes coffee, angel figurines, non-stick cookware, denim pants, crotcheting, and manicures (but not in that order).

It's no big deal buying gifts for my mom whenever a special occasion comes around. I'll just pop into our local mall, go to her favorite boutique, and buy her a gift. Whenever I don't feel like going out, I just log-on to the Internet and browse the online shops. Like I said; easy, right?

Well, for the first few occasions, it was definitely easy. But nowadays I'm having a lot of trouble trying to find something better than the mugs, aprons, frying pans, ceramics, and other stuff that I've been buying for Mom. I've spent the past four hours going from place to place, and still no gift. The Christmas lights are starting to hurt my eyes, my feet are DEFINITELY sore, and if I had to listen to 'Deck the Halls' one more time, may God help the first Santa Claus I see.

Alright, it's still no big deal. I go home and log-in to my PC. Being Internet-savvy, I know there are a lot of online gift shops on the Web. This was going to be a no-brainer for me. Why didn't I do this in the first place? I go to Google and type in the keywords. Big mistake. Almost a hundred websites appeared out of nowhere. It's going to take forever to sort this one out. So I take a deep breath, sent out a short prayer for above, and dived straight in.

I must tell you, the wealth of information on the Internet had me virtually gasping for air. There was a lot to digest and sift through. The next several websites were the same. It seemed like I was in a mall again, only this time my index finger was the one hurting from all the mouse-clicks I had to do. It was not as easy as I thought. Shopping online was supposed to be painless and fast.

Shoppers on the World Wide Web expect faster and easier shopping than what their local mall provides for them. They don't want to sift through layers and layers of categories just to find one item, and the item's details and price must be easily found and read. A friend once told me about a website where he had to read the product description in what seemed like fine print!

As for me, I set-up my own gift site on the Net shortly after realizing that I could attract more shoppers by designing the site based on what I learned from my own experiences as a shopper. Now I have no problem finding gifts for mom, and for everyone else, too.

About the author:

Azlan Irda is the co-founder of http://www.sarahgifts.com which provides great gifts for friends and family. Visit our website to find the perfect gift baskets for any occasion.