Online shopping

History

History of online shopping

One of the earliest forms of trade conducted online was IBM's online transaction processing (OLTP) developed in the 1960s, which allowed the processing of financial transactions in real-time.^[2] The computerized ticket reservation system developed for American Airlines called Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment (SABRE) was one of its applications. There, 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.^[2] At some point between 1971 and 1972, students at Stanford and MIT used the internet precursor ARPANET to make a deal to exchange marijuana, but the interaction doesn't qualify as e-commerce because no money was transferred online.^[3]
The emergence of online shopping as it is known today developed with the emergence of the Internet.^[4] Initially, this platform only functioned as an advertising tool for companies, providing information about their 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.^[5] Specifically, the growth of the Internet as a secure shopping channel has developed since 1994, with the first sales of Sting's album Ten Summoner's Tales.^[6] 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.^[7] 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 a long way since those early days and – in the UK – accounts for significant percentage (depending on product category as percentages can vary).