ZAXOR Software, a computer system integrator and software developer in the Washington DC metropolitan area, conducted a research project to determine the impact of varying website development techniques on the actual purchasing behavior of online shoppers. To conduct this study, ZAXOR invited five groups of fifteen people each, six male and nine female, to use sample “shopping mall” websites. Each of the groups' sample websites had one variable development technique changed. The groups purchasing behavior was recorded under similar conditions, and post-test interviews were conducted with the participants about their shopping experience. The ZAXOR study took into account: (a) the relationship between purchasing decisions and payment mechanisms, (b) the relationship between placement of objects on a website layout, (c) the effect of special discount pricing (d) the impact of entertaining, non-purchase related activities on a website (e) the impact of animation and VRML on purchasing behavior. Results of the study showed that setting up payment accounts in advance of visiting the website had the biggest impact on purchasing behavior of all other techniques. Test subjects spent two and a half times more money in the same amount of time when their payment account logistics were separated from their purchasing decisions. Special discount pricing had the effect of making items that were not discounted seem undesirable. In effect, special discounts seemed to make online purchasing associated with bargain pricing and lowered overall sales dollar volume. The impact of animation had the next highest positive impact on dollars spent per person (directly after the impact of payment logistics). Objects which moved drew attention and received the most order volume. Next highest were objects directly to the right and below objects which moved. Objects directly above moving objects were adversely impacted. Entertaining activities increased the time spent in the shopping mall, but did not have as much impact on dollars spent per person as the introduction of the VRML world, where products could be met along the way while engaged in an entertaining social activity. The ZAXOR study concluded that the most effective commercial online shopping experience would model the characteristics of a multimedia sensory chat room, rather than a print-media catalog.