31.   PATH TO WEB PROFITS SPANS GLOBE A flood of statistics suggests that to keep their businesses growing, Internet merchants have to look outside the United States.

32.   Possibly more significant, Visa has said merchants will have less liability for fraud in transactions using SET than with other Internet transactions.

33.   She said merchants have little incentive to correct measurement problems because the mistakes often boost their profits and the consequences are minimal if they are caught.

34.   Sheep-herders have lambing season, and Vermont merchants have Columbus Day weekend.

35.   That suggests merchants now may have to begin placing new orders to restock their shelves.

36.   The biggest draw of affiliate programs is that merchants do not have to spend marketing dollars to acquire a customer until a purchase is actually made.

37.   The cards are popular in Europe and parts of Asia, but most US merchants already have a much larger network of devices to read ordinary credit cards.

38.   The merchants have cash.

39.   Then other merchants had to decide whether to move into the mall or keep the old storefront that had been on Main Street for three generations.