Electronic commerce Online goods and services Streaming media Electronic books Software Retail product sales Online shopping Online used car shopping Online pharmacy Retail services Online banking Online food ordering Online flower delivery Online DVD rental Marketplace services Online trading community Online auction business model Online wallet Online advertising Price comparison service E-procurement This box: view • talk • edit Online shopping is the process consumers go through to purchase products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping mall. The metaphor of an online catalog can be faster than browsing the aisles of a physical store. Consumers with dial-up Internet connections rather than broadband have much longer load times for content-rich web sites, and have a considerably slower online shopping experience. Some consumers prefer interacting with people rather than computers (and vice versa), sometimes because they find computers hard to use. Not all online retailers have succeeded in making their sites easy to use or reliable. In most cases, merchandise must be shipped to the consumer, bypassing the retailer's physical location to save time, money, and space. In-store pickup: The customer orders online, finds a local store using locator software and picks the product up at the closest store. This is the method often used for digital media products such as software, music, movies, or images. Shipping: The product is shipped to the consumer, bypassing the retailer's physical location to save time, money, and space. In-store pickup: The customer orders online, finds a local store using locator software and picks the product up at the closest store. This is the method often used for digital media products such as software, music, movies, or images. Shipping: The product is shipped to the consumer, introducing a significant delay and potentially uncertainty about whether or not they generally have a fulfillment backlog. A quick response time is sometimes an important factor in consumers' choice of merchant. In the event of a problem with the item - it is not what they expected