Online shopping or online retailing is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser.
Alternative names are: e-web-store, e-shop, e-store, Internet shop,
web-shop, web-store, online store, and virtual store. An online shop
evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or shopping center;
the process is called business-to-consumer (B2C) online shopping. In
the case where a business buys from another business, the process is
called business-to-business (B2B) online shopping. The largest of these
online retailing corporations are Alibaba, Amazon.com and eBay.[1]
Retail success is no longer all about physical stores, this is
evident
because of the increase in retailers now offering online store
interfaces for consumers. With the growth of online shopping, comes a
wealth of new market footprint coverage opportunities for stores that
can appropriately cater to offshore market demands and service
requirements.
The first World Wide Web server and browser, created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, opened for commercial use in 1991.[2] Thereafter, subsequent technological innovations emerged in 1994: online banking, the opening of an online pizza shop by Pizza Hut,[2] Netscape's SSL v2 encryption standard for secure data transfer, and Intershop's first online shopping system. Immediately after, Amazon.com launched its online shopping site in 1995 and eBay was also introduced in 1995.[2]
Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the
retailer directly or by searching among alternative vendors using a shopping search engine.
Once a particular product has been found on the website of the seller, most online retailers use shopping cart software
to allow the consumer to accumulate multiple items and to adjust
quantities, like filling a physical shopping cart or basket in a
conventional store. A "checkout" process follows (continuing the
physical-store analogy) in which payment and delivery information is
collected, if necessary. Some stores allow consumers to sign up for a
permanent online account so that some or all of this information only
needs to be entered once. The consumer often receives an e-mail
confirmation once the transaction is complete.
Less sophisticated stores may rely on consumers to phone or e-mail
their orders (although full credit card numbers, expiry date, and Card Security Code,[5] or bank account and routing number should not be accepted by e-mail, for reasons of security
Once a payment has been accepted, the goods or services can be delivered in the following ways:
- Downloading/Digital distribution:[8] The method often used for digital media products such as software, music, movies, or images.
- Drop shipping: The order is passed to the manufacturer or third-party distributor, who then ships the item directly to the consumer, bypassing the retailer's physical location to save time, money, and space.
- In-store pick-up: The customer selects a local store using a locator software and picks up the delivered product at the selected location. This is the method often used in the bricks and clicks business model.
- Printing out, provision of a code for, or e-mailing of such items as admission tickets and scrip (e.g., gift certificates and coupons). The tickets, codes, or coupons may be redeemed at the appropriate physical or online premises and their content reviewed to verify their eligibility (e.g., assurances that the right of admission or use is redeemed at the correct time and place, for the correct dollar amount, and for the correct number of uses).
- Shipping: The product is shipped to a customer-designated address.
- Will call, lCOBO (in Care Of Box Office), or "at the door" pickup: The patron picks up pre-purchased tickets for an event, such as a play, sporting event, or concert, either just before the event or in advance. With the onset of the Internet and e-commerce sites, which allow customers to buy tickets online, the popularity of this service has increased.
Shopping cart systems
- Simple systems allow the off-line administration of products and categories. The shop is then generated as HTML files and graphics that can be uploaded to a webspace. The systems do not use an online database.[citation needed]
- A high-end solution can be bought or rented as a stand-alone program or as an addition to an enterprise resource planning program. It is usually installed on the company's webserver and may integrate into the existing supply chain so that ordering, payment, delivery, accounting and warehousing can be automated to a large extent.
- Other solutions allow the user to register and create an online shop on a portal that hosts multiple shops simultaneously.
- Open source shopping cart packages include advanced platforms such as Interchange, and off-the-shelf solutions such as Magento, osCommerce, PrestaShop, Shopify, Zen Cart.[9]
- Commercial systems can also be tailored so the shop does not have to be created from scratch. By using an existing framework, software modules for various functionalities required by a web shop can be adapted and combined.
- Customers are attracted to online shopping not only because of high levels of convenience, but also because of broader selections, competitive pricing, and greater access to information.[10][11] Business organizations seek to offer online shopping not only because it is of much lower cost compared to bricks and mortar stores, but also because it offers access to a world wide market, increases customer value, and builds sustainable capabilities.
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