Martin Even as the World celebrates the 25th anniversary of the First Online Sale, Asia Pacific region has taken a lead over North America and Europe with figures of $ 433 billion in 2012. Globally, ecommerce sales are set to hit the 1.5 trillion dollar figure this year. Today over 95 percent of Britons choose to shop online and China is one of the fastest growing markets when it comes to online sales.
The world’s first online secure purchase took place this day about 20 years ago with the sale of “Ten Summoner’s Tales album by Sting for a sum of $ 12.48 plus shipping charges. Now everything and anything under the Sun can be bought online in the simplest and secure way with the click of a mouse. Apparels, consumer electronic devices and computers account for major portion of online sales. From using desktop PCs for shopping the trend today is to shop using smartphones and tablets. According to research by Shop Direct, one in 10 shoppers use their mobile for secure online purchases.
Michael Aldrich, an Englishman, is said to have invented online shopping in 1979. His system comprised of a computer, a modified TV set and a telephone line known as the videotext system to conduct online sales. He defined his system as a new participative communication medium that would permit open participation in the form of messaging, information dissemination and transactions. Today this is known as social media. Back then in the 1980s he manufactured and sold videotext systems that supported online technology. His videotext systems had voice response and handprint processing capabilities much before the internet descended on the world. Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web server in 1990 and made it available for commercial use in 1991. The rest is history.
