Since the advent of the World Wide Web in 1990, the Internet has become an integral part of the global society. For the average citizen in any urban city around the world, a large part of their day is spent on the computer and on the Internet, be it for leisure or for work. It has become such an integral part of people’s lives that traditional offline activities now have online representations.
Besides the boom of online media and social networking, there has been an explosion in the number of e-commerce sites. As people become increasingly caught up with globalisation and its side effects, e-commerce has become another success story of the World Wide Web.
Online shopping, which is the layman’s term for e-commerce, is popular both for business-to-business transactions but especially so for business to consumer transactions. The rise of online retail caters to the needs of most consumers-providing a wide variety of goods; the global reach of e-commerce; increasing the level of convenience as well as ease of purchasing products and the move towards perfect knowledge for consumers. Online shopping sites were most popular in the United States, with success stories such as Amazon and Ebay.
This trend of shopping online has since spread to the rest of the world, with surveys showing that online shopping has grown tremendously particularly in Asia. South Korea for example boasts a 99 percent rate of Internet users who shop online, with Singapore not too far behind. A survey of over 26000 Internet users in 2008 found that 8 out of 10 Singaporeans shopped online, and this number has grown since then. There are high online transaction rates for retail categories such as travel-related products, books, clothing and event tickets. This growth has resulted in more savvy and discerning shoppers, since online shopping has allowed consumers and shoppers to be able to compare prices much more easily than before.
The rising popularity of shopping online has also contributed to the entrepreneurial spirit of many savvy Internet users, with many taking the opportunity to set up a low cost e-commerce. With such positive benefits for both shoppers and retailers, it seems that online shopping is ready to take over the world and will remain a popular and constant trend.