Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Online Shopping: A Rich History

Author: Raymond Shell

Most people are not aware that you can trace the development of online shopping all the way back to 1979. Videotex was being developed in the UK at this time. Videotex was basically a two-way messaging system where messages could be sent requesting information from many different companies. While Michael Aldrich was working on Videotex in the UK, The Source and CompuServe were working on the concept of teleshopping in the US.
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While online shopping can trace its roots back to the late 1970's, advancements in technology allowing the majority of the public to participate didn't happen until the early 1990's. It was in 1990 that Tim Berners-Lee wrote the worldwide web, and provided the first browser to view the web. Most experts believe that this was the start of the revolution.

By 1994 Netscape released Navigator. Navigator was the first web browser that included Secure Socket layers (SSL) encryption. With the development and implementation of SSL, consumers could now do transactions across the web safely and securely. This is when we started to see online shopping becoming an acceptable way to make purchases, and major corporations start to endorse online shopping as vehicle to deliver goods and services.
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Pizza Hut was one of the first companies to adapt online marketing as an alternative for their consumers. Pizza hut was offering online ordering in late 1994. It was just one short year later, 1995, that we were introduced to Amazon.com. Amazon.com provided us the ability to purchase anything from toothpaste to computers without ever leaving our homes. It was the early success of Amazon.com that lead to fast online shopping growth. Companies like Dell and Cisco started using the internet as their platform and online auctions became the home of thrifty shoppers on such sites as EBay.
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Despite the dot-com bust of 2000, online shopping continues to be a thriving industry. Companies of every size and product sector look to offer their customers the convenience, cost savings, variety, and privacy that can only come from internet shopping. As we head to the holiday season, many of us will also turn to online shopping as a way to buffer ourselves from the holiday crowds.

MaggiesDirect.com, a manufacture and distributor of bedding and apparel based out of Portland, Maine, has also included online shopping as a means to providing exceptional products and savings to the public. MaggiesDirect.com is part of a new and growing sector of companies endorsing the web and online shopping. As a manufacturer, MaggiesDirect.com is able to offer factory direct pricing via the web.
As more of us start turning towards the internet for cost savings and convenience we will probably see a continued increase of manufactures starting to offer their products directly to the public via the internet.
 
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/gifts-articles/online-shopping-a-rich-history-3552136.html