Starting from its infancy in the early nineties, E-commerce has come a long way. Popular websites today like Ebay and Amazon were started in this period and enabled trade to grow without restrictive boundaries.[7, Forbes] For example, customers may not have considered a purchase of a simple item like a phone charger from China, but rather making the purchase in the closest available store. When the internet boom began in the late nineties, search engines like Google and Ask Jeeves connected the buyers to the sellers across geographical territories. Not only did online shopping make the process hassle free for consumers but opened new avenues for the sellers to sell their products and reach out to newer markets and territories.

With technological …show more content…
83% of U.S. consumers go online to research electronics, computers, books, music and movies before buying those items in bricks-and-mortar stores [Understanding How U.S. Online Shoppers are Reshaping the Retail Experience, - PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.]
As consumers and companies have become more sophisticated, the omni-channel retail system has emerged. This model is predicated on the idea that the new-age shopper interacts with retailers across multiple channels. Optimists have applauded this evolution, as traditional brick-and-mortar locations have benefited from consumers’ ability to shop from home. Skeptics have voiced concern over the emergence of showrooming behavior, in which consumers use brick-and-mortar locations to examine products before purchasing goods online. The answer to this controversy remains unanswered, and has resulted in widespread doubt regarding the future and current utility of brick-and-mortar …show more content…
Despite Amazon’s dominance online, the online e-commerce industry accounted for just over 6% of total retail sales in the United States in 2012 [Department of