Online shopping is the process consumers go through to purchase products or services over the Internet. An online shop, e-shop, internet shop, webshop or online store evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping mall. It is an electronic commerce application used for business-to-business electronic commerce (B2B) or business-to-consumer electronic commerce (B2C). Online shopping is popular mainly because of its speed and ease of use. Some issues of concern can include fluctuating exchange rates for foreign currencies, local and international laws and delivery methods.

Product reviews

Online shoppers can easily learn from previous experiences of different products, mostly by reading user or expert reviews. Reading online product reviews is usually the first step in online shopping, which plays an important role in customers' decisions. Many online stores such as Amazon.com and Newegg today allow customers to comment or rate their items.

Price comparison

An advantage of shopping online is being able to use the power of the internet to seek out the lowest prices or the best deals available for items or services. For example if one is buying a digital camera he/she should enter "digital camera" into a search engine or a price search engine. Most price comparison services have the advantage of store ratings and reviews. Getting the lowest price is important but it is more important to make sure the merchant or store the customer is purchasing from is reputable. There are some online stores that display ridiculously low prices, but when you call them you may find out that the item you're seeking is out of stock. This is called the "bait and switch" technique. The best way to avoid backorder disappointment is to contact the online store by phone and verify that the product you're seeking is in stock. If you're told that there's only one left, then place your order by phone.

from :en.wikipedia.org