Sure. In fact, more people use the Web for research than for purchases. There are some real benefits to buying locally. You have a person you can talk to if you have a complaint; you can touch and feel and smell the merchandise; you can have a latte while you are resting after carrying your purchases down the escalator.

The amount of information you get on each product varies enormously from site to site, but if you go to stores we recommend for their product descriptions, you will learn a lot, probably more than you could pick up walking around and talking with salespeople in a regular store.