Introduction of online shopping / Evolution of online shopping or e-commerce

Online shopping has made all of our lives very easy and simple to the point where everyone feels comfortable shopping online as it saves you a lot of time and energy, because of the invention of digital platforms we are living in the era where the world is in our hands as every product out there is just a click away.

But most of us may not be aware of who started the concept of shopping online at home, well in this blog let’s learn a little about the evolution of online shopping and where it started first.

*1960-1979 (EDI and Teleshopping)*

*Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)*
Online shopping was started almost 40 years ago, the year 1960-1982 were the years when the concept of transferring data electronically from one computer to another was introduced, as an advanced improvement of faxing machines, EDIs were evolving to be a success as it did not allow humans to interfere, and was able to transfer endless data rapidly.

*Teleshopping*
Then comes the approach of marketing at everyone's home through their televisions where the customers place orders by calling the numbers shown on the television and the products will be delivered home.
In 1979 Michael Aldrich, an Entrepreneur, and his wife had a discussion about getting things delivered to their homes right from the supermarket, through the medium of television, therefore Michael Aldrich can be proudly called the originator of online shopping from homes enabling transactions between the customers and businesses online. Teleshopping was telecasted in every house where celebrities and comedians promoted products with demonstrations. It has most definitely given ideas to businessmen to think of even better ways to sell their products and transact payments online, but the e-commerce that we know today wouldn’t have been possible without the sole support system of the Internet.

*1982-1997 (Minitel)*

In 1982, France launched Minitel as a way of communicating for free through a videotex terminal machine with the help of telephone lines, it was cost-free and helped millions and millions of users to connect through this medium of online communication. By the end of 1997, almost every home had this source of communication for free, until the Internet showed its presence in the World.

*1990-1994 (World Wide Web)*

On the other end of the world, In 1990, Tim Berners Lee was honored with the invention of The World Wide Web, He implemented the first Web Browser as a huge development for the web, along with HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).
During those times there were a lot of misconceptions regarding the safety of transacting money online, but in 1994, an encryption certificate called Secure Socket Layers was created by Netscape for safety in shopping online.

*1994-Present (E-commerce platforms)*

With the development of the web browser, Amazon was the first-ever e-commerce to have received a massive response from customers all across the world for its prompt services and valuable products online, Amazon even exceeded Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon on July 5th, 1994, Initially, he began to sell books online which later expanded to electronics, games, clothes, toys, and food.

Following Amazon, A Computer programmer Pierre Omidyar found E-bay in the year 1995, an online auction site that had first sold a broken laser pointer in auction for $14, Omidyar was in shock when that was sold, he spoke to the buyer telling him that the pointer was broken but the buyer replied and said that He is a collector of broken laser pointers, soon E-bay was popularized and has also seen rapid growth in its shopping site in the following years.

After witnessing the development and success of Amazon, E-bay, and other e-commerce sites along with online payment sites with encrypted standards like Paypal had earned the trust of customers for transacting money online, with the advancement of such factors many online shopping platforms were introduced after the year 2000 in various countries for promoting their brands and building their brand images.

*Future of e-commerce*

In these competitive times, there are so many e-commerce sites that can provide the same kind of service and products keeping up with high standards, so to survive in the future amongst the existing platforms, businesses need to thrive harder and keep monitoring the current needs and thoughts of customers by modifying it accordingly, you may need to focus mainly on product updations by reviewing the feedbacks of customers, update the website for lags and errors to avoid losing customers, and impress the buyers with quality services to retain and survive in this online business world.

The only factor people are still not convinced with is they don't always receive the same product that they see online, there may be slight variations in the color, size, or design that makes people lose interest and are not completely satisfied with what they order.
To break this dilemma, in recent days, online clothing businesses have introduced the concept of try and buy online for people living in the same state or locality, where they get delivered with 3-4 apparels for trial and choose the ones that are most suitable for them.

*Conclusion*

Online shopping has benefited us in many ways for avoiding queues and crowded areas especially at this time, it has also empowered you to shop safely while sitting at home. Hope you were able to learn about the evolution of e-commerce through this informative blog.