Online shop
Similar to normal shopping malls and stores, online shops (also known as “electronic stores”) offer prospective customers the opportunity to obtain product information. Furthermore, suppliers can present their products. E-shops therefore offer the opportunity to initiate and support transactions (consisting of information, agreement, processing and service) and, if necessary, to process them completely electronically. The online shop is therefore a special form of mail order and e-commerce. Different types of product presentation are also used here, such as product photography, advertising texts, videos and three-dimensional product images.
The development of online shops
The first online shop with the aim of presenting and marketing products, as well as bringing together suppliers and consumers, emerged between 1995 and 2000. These primarily attempted to emulate traditional department stores and aimed at the pure presentation and purchase of products. In the course of time, the requirements for online stores increased with the possibilities of computer technology as well as information technology. The focus was particularly on administrative functionality, which was expanded to include services such as product databases, content management (summary of all activities, processes and tools that support the lifecycle of digital information) and customer registration/management. By 2009, the focus of online shop development had shifted to customer requirements in addition to the pure requirements for administrative processes. Examples of this include functionality for customer account management and, among other things, the management of personal wish lists, notepads and help functions. In view of the large number of customers who use e-shops on a daily basis, the latest development of online shops is particularly concerned with data protection and security requirements (“customer features/security”). Another current topic in the development of online shops is the greater involvement of customers, for example through customer ratings, personal recommendations and social media.
Payment systems
The conclusion of the sale plays a major, psychological role in transactions that a customer makes in online shops. Unlike the normal payment process in a department store or store, the consumer transmits data via a virtual platform. To break through this psychological barrier, providers of online stores use a wide variety of payment systems to guarantee the security of the customer’s data. For example, direct debit is often used because the inhibition threshold for transmitting account details is often lower than, for example, providing credit card data. The so-called proprietary micropayment systems, on the other hand, are having a hard time establishing themselves on the online market. With these payment systems, customers are redirected from the online shop to the website of their financial institution and exchange their personal data exclusively with their bank. Particularly popular payment systems in Germany, however, are still, on the one hand, payment systems developed specifically for the Internet, such as PayPal, and, on the other hand, the classic payment systems prepayment, invoice, cash on delivery and credit card.
