Online shopping, or e-commerce as most people would like to call it, became popular at the end of 1989 and the beginning of 1990. Since then, a lot of companies started their own online business and many other existing companies started an online branch for their internet users.

The first thing that went online from the existing companies was online banking. A lot of banks saw the potential in the World Wide Web and started creating and developing online transactions. Actually, without online transactions, online shopping would have never existed.

The first two companies that went online were Pizza Hut, which started a big public campaign on the internet and Amazon, which became one of the most popular online shops in the world. First Pizza Hut only had a limited option of locations where people were able to send their order, but soon a lot of branches from all over the world had the same option. Those who experienced the internet in the 90s probably remember that Amazon was a bookstore at first, which is quite shocking when you look at the variety of products they offer nowadays.

The third important company that influenced the online shopping community was, of course, eBay. eBay was the online auction website where people could sell and buy cheaper things. It still is one of the most popular places to buy anything you can possibly imagine.

The next important step in the history of online shopping was the development of Paypal.com. This website offered a different method of buying, much safer than methods offered by banks. You were allowed to attach a credit card to your account and the person who received money from you couldn’t see the personal details. This definitely revolutionized the market and the way people bought different things until then. It also became a part of eBay which lead to both of their growth on the market and in popularity.

When doing some online shopping, think about all these steps people had to go through to have something we nowadays take for granted.