But the one problem online retailers have is capturing the browsing shopper. With only a home page to compete with the highly visible displays in most shop windows, it’s not easy to simply wander around an online store and spot something you may not have been looking for.

Step forward Amazon WindowShop.

Like Apple’s Cover Flow after a couple of Pro Plus and six cans of Red Bull, it’s basically a huge grid of the latest and best offerings from Amazon, easily navigated with the cursor keys. Flick through the bestselling DVDs of the week, the artists Amazon thinks you should hear and editors picks of the latest novels.

It’s all very slick, but all seems a little pointless – until you actually see what Amazon is offering you. Press Space to zoom in on an item and the appeal becomes clear: audio extracts from books and CDs, video clips and trailers for DVDs and games, including extras or interviews and anything else that may accompany a particular product. And if that’s not hypnotic enough, you can buy anything you like right there and then.

Our only real concern is in the name – WindowShop. Could it be that, as with most branches of Borders and Waterstones these days, it just further narrows most people’s taste range to the few heavily-marketed products that are waved before their eyes as they walk through the door?

I’d like to believe it heralds a new generation of web shops, but I can’t help thinking it’ll simply be used to sell more copies of High School Musical to people who really should be buying The Wire.

I had the pleasure of popping into PC World on Saturday and, once there, I was handed a leaflet detailing some of the store’s current special offers. I didn’t think anything of it – I even shoved it in my pocket as I went to buy some BD-R discs – but I was in for a surprise when I had a look at the brochure after a couple of minutes.

That’s because it wasn’t actually a leaflet at all. The hapless employee had handed me an internal memo that described the ‘Weekend Top Deals’, how they’d been promoted in a variety of national media, how they’re being advertised in-store and, most intriguingly, the reasons why the chain of shops – one of the UK’s biggest, actually – is putting its marketing money behind these particular products.

Take the Sharp 46X20E 46″ digital LCD TV, for instance. Wander into the store and you may be led to believe that it’s a superb product and that it’ll provide many hours of viewing pleasure for your family.

A closer look, though, reveals that there must be a surplus in a very large warehouse somewhere. “This stock must go!” demands the brochure, following on to specify that the salespeople must “sell through all boxed stock, and your display model.” I just hope that they tell the unlucky bloke who’s bought an ex-display TV that it’s been prodded and poked by dozens of prospective buyers and offer him a suitable discount.

Even more revealing is the tale of the HP TouchSmart IQ500 – a product that’s currently sitting in the Labs and is making quite an impression at PC Pro thanks to an intuitive touchscreen interface and some stylish design. Is that why it’s on sale for such a good price?

Not entirely, according to the leaflet. It’s available for a price that, apparently, “makes great margin!”, ensuring a healthy profit on every unit sold. I’m sure that every store emphasises its most profitable products, but it’s not often that we’re given evidence of such blatant profiteering, even if it is by accident.

The worst thing, though? It’s the fact that this particular national chain spells ‘back to school’ as ‘bak2skl’. Oh dear.