Online shopping is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods, services
etc. from a seller interactively in real-time without an intermediary service
over the Internet. If an intermediary service is present the process is called
electronic commerce. An online shop, eshop, e-store, internet shop, webshop,
webstore, online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy of buying
products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping mall.
The metaphor of an online catalog is also used, by analogy with mail order
catalogs. All types of stores have retail web sites, including those that do and
do not also have physical storefronts and paper catalogs. Online shopping is a
form of electronic commerce used for business-to-business (B2B) and
business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions.
.