Something that we are used to in our modern world is being able to use our computers or smart phones to look for what we want and with a few clicks of our phone we can buy it. We then have many companies who can quickly deliver the goods to us quickly, like this same day courier Slough based company UK TDL.

But it wasn’t so long ago that things were very different. After all its only the past couple of decades that we have enjoyed the benefits of online shopping. But where did it all start and how did it become so popular?

In 1979, for the first time a system was invented by connecting a computer to a telephone line. This was the very first system that could be used for online shopping and went on to become the foundation that was used to develop online shopping in future years. The inventor of this system, Michael Aldrich created a little-known system called videotex. Ordering using the television which was connected to a telephone and phoned through to a local supermarket. It was a system that was created with elderly people in mind, who might struggle to get out to do their shopping.

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When the internet in its dial up form started to make its way into homes, there were not many companies that used it to sell their wares. However, one of the first to see this opportunity was Pizza Hut. In 1994 they created a portal to allow customers to order a pizza on the internet, by entering their details. This was quickly followed by the birth of the now globally well-known company Amazon – originally an online book shop. The world of modern ecommerce was starting to lay the foundations of what was to become more and more popular.

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This new way of shopping had to be bought into by consumers however to make it work – and buy in they certainly did! As the appetite for online shopping grew and grew as the ease and benefits of it became more apparent, more and more companies were cropping up online, as well as existing retail companies who had always used the high street were now sitting up and taking notice of the need to take advantage of ecommerce.

Smartphones were another huge leap forward when it came to online shopping. Being able to use your phone to shop suddenly made shopping even easier. You could do it from any location without even having to turn the computer on. Throughout the decade from 2010 – 2019, this is one of the major factors that contributed to higher online sales.

Then in 2020 the pandemic hit. Shops were closed and the only form of shopping that was possible around the world could be done via the internet. From March 2020 online sales shot up, as people who had previously not used internet shopping much had to turn to this method as it was the only one available when it came to buying goods.