Women executives embrace online purchasing, banking.

It's time to retire the stereotype of women shopping 'til they drop -- not because women are buying less, but because of how they are now buying. Working women, particularly those who own businesses or are high-level executives, are driving the change.

A 1999 study by the National Foundation of Women Business Owners found higher numbers of female executives and women business owners will shop on the Internet: 57 percent of women business owners who use the Internet have purchased online, compared to 40 percent of female employees who go online.

Meanwhile, higher numbers of women professionals are purchasing from catalogs rather than shopping in malls or retail …