The Rapid Growth Of Internet Shopping

Where is the easiest place to find green tea, computer skins and a solitaire engagement ring while saving gasoline? Of course, it is by shopping on the internet.

In many ways the internet has revolutionized the world. In almost any home in the world, there is some type of access to the internet. Even in third world countries, the use of the internet is bringing work to people that are able to make far more money than every before possible in their country through telecommuting.

Internet shopping has grown as the internet has grown. Twenty years ago, there was no internet shopping. In 1994 a start up bookstore called Amazon was begun. While not the first bookstore to sell books online, it has grown to be the largest online bookstore today.

In fact, 1994 seems to have been the time that many of the successful online shopping stores that are still available went live. Pizza Hut first started allowing customers to order their pizza online during this time.

The internet giant, E-Bay did not begin until 1995. Their first sale was a broken laser pointer. It was sold to a collector. Now the site has grown very large and often offers mulit-million dollar items as well as those that will sell for under a dollar.

Although it grew slower at first, Craigslist also started in 1995 as an e-mailed list of items for sale in the San Francisco bay area. It now serves at least 570 cities in fifty different countries.

If you need groceries, but do not want to leave the house, just enter your order online at several of the grocery retailer sites and they will be delivered within hours if you live in a major city.

Of course, one of the most popular items to order online is the computer itself. Dell had manufactured and sold computers since the 1980s, however it did not start selling computers on its own website until 1996.

Whatever you are shopping for, you will very likely find it online at one of the online retailers. There are groceries and computers as well as used cars or livestock. All are on one of the many websites that are found online.

Today security in a shopping site is of utmost concern. Most retail sites have beefed up security and Paypal offers services that keep you from having to give a credit card number to an online retailer. Online shopping will probably continue to grow over time. There may be a time that many of the big box stores become warehouses that are shipping headquarters for online shopping outlets.