Online shopping is the process
consumers go through to purchase products or services over the
Internet. 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 type of electronic commerce used for
business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions.
The term "Webshop" also refers to a place of business where web
development, web hosting and other types of web related activities take
place (Web refers to the World Wide Web and "shop" has a colloquial
meaning used to describe the place where one's occupation is carried
out).