From 2002 to 2008 he was a member of the board of Namics, the largest Swiss Internet consultancy.

EBay is still far and away the biggest auction site on the market, commanding about 95 percent of auction listings, according to Jupiter Research, an Internet consultancy.

The bride owns the Rosen Group, a marketing, media and Internet consultancy in New York.

According to Asaf Buchner, a financial services analyst with the Internet consultancy Jupiter Research, that component could be critical to these sites becoming profitable.

"Hotels are working both on ways to reduce their costs and form stronger customer relationships," said Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Forrester Research, an Internet consultancy.

He also operated his own Internet consultancy, YudelCom Communications.

Online advertising revenues are expected to grow by 31 percent to $16.4 billion this year, according to a report by eMarketer, an Internet consultancy.

"The thing to know about this is that anybody can do it," said Gary Stein, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research, an Internet consultancy.

But those multichannel shoppers may not be so valuable after all, according to research released today by the Internet consultancy Jupiter Research.

"Domain name sales have really become a not-for-profit business," said Rich Miller, an analyst with Netcraft, an Internet consultancy in Britain.