The curious origins of online shopping

While online shopping was huge enough before 2020, it has become truly mainstream due to the push provided by the pandemic.

• It started in Gateshead, England, when an old lady used the Videotex system, an interactive computer terminal connected to the TV, to order for groceries (margarine, cornflakes and eggs) using the remote control, back in 1984.
• In 1994, the first online marketplace was set up, and was called NetMarket, and even had advanced encryption.
• The first purchase in cyberspace using technology similar to the present was an audio CD of the artist Sting.

• Pizza Hut started selling pizzas online in 1994, using a flat, grey website to take the addresses and phone numbers of pizza-hungry customers.
• Amazon.com too was launched in 1994, when we could only buy books on the site and is now the biggest online retail store, making the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people on the planet.

• By 2017, Smartphone usage hit 80 percent worldwide, and online shopping apps became a common thing to use.
• Since then, online shopping has been topping every sales chart, with Shopify providing the worldwide sales figure of USD 3.5 trillion in 2019.
• A majority of stuff ordered online included electronics, books etc., with groceries not a huge priority, until this year.

The watershed year made the world go back to basics, with people ordering groceries and essentials online.

The increasing adoption of e-commerce as well as new technologies like 5G, click-and-collect and many more is bolstering the use of online shopping. The ongoing pandemic is changing the demands and needs of the consumer, with companies adopting hybrid models to stay relevant and useful.