Not long ago people were extremely hesitant to purchase goods online: though there were already many online stores back then, most people would rather go to a shop down the street to get what they needed. The main reason for that was that they were afraid of fraud and misuse of their personal data. Hacked credit card numbers and spyware collecting personal data made people mistrust the new ways of shopping. During the last couple of years, however, the companies developing methods of paying online have put much effort into making their systems and paying methods much more secure and reliable. Nowadays fraud has been made nearly impossible and nobody who orders something on the web has to worry about any misuse of his or her personal data anymore. Also, credit and debit card transaction processing has been made much more user-friendly and accessible.
Online shopping has become mainstream
Whereas the aspects of security have played a huge role in making online shopping so popular, another reason is the fact that being online has become a part of everybody’s everyday-life. Laptops, smartphones and tablet PCs enable us to go online wherever we are and whenever we want. As a consequence making use of the possibilities the web can offer us has become much more natural. Whereas a couple of years ago online shopping was something only nerds were making use of, it has now become mainstream. And the future looks good for online shops: Experts predict a quarter of the UK retail sales to be online in four years.
A second life on the web
Having a presence online its not only restricted to shops and companies: More and more people run their own websites, write their own blogs and cultivate their profiles in social networks. The internet has become so indispensable in our lives that the constant growth of online sales doesn`t really come as a huge surprise. The foundation for that development was built with improved paying systems and security standards.