30 years of e-commerce: the story of the first online purchase

Today, online shopping is as common as transactions in brick-and-mortar stores. Even for the purchase of goods such as clothing and shoes, which many have long refused to order via the Internet. history of e-commercea sector whose revenues have grown steadily over the past decade took its first roots exactly 30 years ago.

Origin e-commerce This takes us back to February 16, 1994. On this very day gastronomic chain Pizza Hut has given the starting signal for a business that in 2024 will be essential for any company looking to grow. According to Statista, global e-commerce recorded revenue of more than $5.7 billion last year. This figure is expected to exceed $8 billion annually in 2027.

Besides the pizza chain, there’s another unexpected hero in the e-commerce story. Did you know that the first online sale was made by British artist Sting? Although not everyone knows it, industry giants such as Amazon, eBay and Alibaba were preceded by massive circulations and a music album.

History of e-commerce: 30 years ago, Pizza Hut opened its first online store

The story takes us to 1994, to Santa Cruz, a California city about 115 kilometers south of San Francisco. On February 16 of the same year, the restaurant chain Opening of Pizza Hut PizzaNet. This is an important milestone in the history of e-commerce. This was not a classic ribbon cutting at a high street store, but the first site to allow online shopping.

The site’s interface was extremely simple, although anticipatory and therefore worthy of praise. A welcome text, access to the product menu – in this case pizza and drinks – a form for the client to provide their information and an order confirmation button. According to the chronicles, this was an experiment, during which it soon began to take shape. Shop from home without even dialing a phone number to ensure the product reaches the consumer’s doorstep.

An interesting detail: in 1994, when Pizza Hut began its e-commerce story, the number of Internet users in the world was about 20 million. We’re now on track to reach 5.5 billion, according to We Are Social statistics in its latest report. Digital Report 2024. The truth is that PizzaNet has gone beyond And-commerce. While following the site History of the Internet“browsers barely support images (…) and the Internet has just expanded beyond the academic world.”

How did PizzaNet, a pioneering site in the history of e-commerce, work?

As we have already noted, the cornerstone e-commerce He settled in a Californian city. The geography of this innovation is not surprising given the technological advancements in this American region, home to industry giants such as Apple, Meta, Google and Netflix, to name a few.

However, no customer information was left in Santa Cruz. Data from the forms traveled more than 400 kilometers to Wichita, Kansas, to the grocery chain’s centralized server. Once the order is received, a human agent called the phone number provided to verify the request and make sure it was not a joke. At this stage, it is worth remembering that the site did not have those functions that will appear later for making online payments. So the customer paid when he received the pizza.

As the restaurant chain said in a 2013 tweet, the first product purchased in e-commerce history was pizza. However, some question this claim. So what was sold online first? Studying this question, chords Ten Summoner Stories.

Controversy surrounding the first product sold online and Sting’s fame

Without a doubt, PizzaNet from Pizza Hut occupies a prominent place in the history of e-commerce. But the relevance of this platform also has nuances. On the one hand, as we noted, what began on February 16, 1994 was a pilot test. On the other hand, it was only available to customers in Santa Cruz, California. In August of the same year Los Angeles Times He described the move as “half-baked experiment” Brilliant when it comes to pizza.

From the perspective of 2024, the chronicle appears prehistoric. “The nation’s largest pizza delivery service just launched PizzaNet online. Why call or fax an order with extra cheese, half mushrooms and half pepperoni and onions (…) when you can order it virtually online. This is the way geek And chic there is,” the American media wrote 30 years ago.

Was pizza the first item sold online? Report published in New York Times In August of that year, he pointed in a different direction. Graduated Attention buyers: The Internet is open., the report enthroned another king in the history of e-commerce. As they stated, The first online sale was Sting’s album.entitled Ten Summoner Stories.

According to the aforementioned source, a buyer from Philadelphia, US, paid $12.48 by credit card for the album, the Briton’s fourth studio album in his solo career. Thus, it is possible that this piece of music displaces pizza from its privileged place in e-commerce.

In any case, it is interesting and curious to remember that this food of Italian origin was the protagonist of another milestone in digital transactions: it was the first thing bought with Bitcoin, as we previously reported in Hypertext when considering the future of this cryptocurrency.

Beyond Pizza and Records: 5 Statistics About E-Commerce in 2024

• This year, More than 21% of total retail sales will be carried out online.in accordance with Forbes. This percentage is expected to increase to 24% by 2026.
• China leads e-commerce sales, accounting for more than 50% of all retail sales worldwide, according to the International Trade Association. The Asian giant is followed by the USA. The third largest e-commerce market is Europe, UK.with a 4.8% share of global retail sales.
• Amazon It accounts for 37.8% of sector sales, the largest market share of all participating companies. The firm was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, the same year that saw two of the seminal transactions in e-commerce history discussed earlier in this article.
• Mobile phones are relevant. Statistics reflect that 91% make online purchases from their phone.
• What opened three decades ago at Pizza Hut wasn’t without its share of scams. According to Statista, e-commerce fraud will exceed $70 billion by 2025.