Customers get used to the advantages of online shopping and start to accept the concept. Better prices than in the local retail trade, shipment right up to the doorstep, recall and return rights fill the virtual shopping carts and brands like Amazon are part of the vocabulary now.

Browsing and comparing also takes place online. With the use of certain web portals potential buyers have numerous options for a vendor-wide price and product comparison, where wishes can be filtered down to the last detail.

Formats emerged over the course of the e-commerce evolution, which can hardly be realized offline. “Liveshopping”, for example, means offering a daily changing product with an exceptional price. Social networks are slowly conquered by e-commerce systems and even whole shopping communities evolve.

Vendors offering their goods online do not have to maintain expensive shops and most of their processes up to the shipment proceed electronically and automatically. They can choose between development of an own shopping system or customization of commercial or open source solutions.

In the best case the online shop should meet the requirements of the vendor, the business area and the target audience and should not be an off-the-shelf catalogue solution. Clothing, for example, sells different than electronics.

In addition to payments and the associated security and privacy processes, e-commerce solutions require concepts for data storage and access by potential buyers.