History of online shopping
One of the earliest forms of trade conducted online was IBM's
online transaction processing (OLTP) developed in the 1960s and
it allowed the processing of financial transactions in
real-time. The computerized ticket reservation system developed
for American Airlines called Semi-Automatic Business Research
Environment (SABRE) was one of its applications. Here, computer
terminals located in different travel agencies were linked to a
large IBM mainframe computer, which processed transactions
simultaneously and coordinated them so that all travel agents
had access to the same information at the same time.
The emergence of online shopping as we know today developed with
the emergence of the Internet. Initially, this platform only
functioned as an advertising tool for companies, providing
information about its products. It quickly moved on from this
simple utility to actual online shopping transaction due to the
development of interactive Web pages and secure transmissions.
Specifically, the growth of the internet as a secure shopping
channel has developed since 1994, with the first sales of Sting
album 'Ten Summoner's Tales'Wine, chocolates, and flowers
soon followed and were among the pioneering retail categories
which fueled the growth of online shopping. Researchers found
that having products that are appropriate for e-commerce was a
key indicator of Internet success Many of these products
did well as they are generic products which shoppers did not
need to touch and feel in order to buy. But also importantly, in
the early days, there were few shoppers online and they were
from a narrow segment: affluent, male, 30+. Online shopping has
come along way since these early days and accounts for
significant percents (depending on product category as
percentages can vary). |
