21.   Indeed, some merchants have to talk a customer through a sale like air controllers guiding a skittish pilot through an emergency landing.

22.   Local merchants have neither big technology budgets, nor the expertise to pull off an e-commerce site.

23.   Last year many online merchants had shipping trouble and other glitches that created holiday madness of an unwanted kind.

24.   Merchants have to use U.S. dollars to purchase goods, principally in Pakistan and Iran.

25.   Merchants have various guidelines for reserving credit.

26.   Much of the losses, experts say, are driven by the Internet, and with electronic commerce growing, merchants will have to be vigilant about protecting themselves.

27.   On the other hand, she said, the Korean merchants have to make the old-time residents feel more welcome.

28.   One issue nearly all on-line merchants may have to deal with is making their Web sites easier to use.

29.   Online merchants have an increasingly good idea where we have been, how much time we spent there and what we bought along the way.

30.   Other merchants may not have that kind of patience.