Web Design & Online Shopping: 20 Year Timewarp

Last Updated on January 18th, 2020

Question: What was the first product ever securely sold over the Internet?

Answer: Sting’s compact disk, Ten Summoner’s Tales on 11^th August 1994.¹

Thanks to improved security measures across the net, by the mid 90s, shopping online got serious. First called e-tailing (short for electronic retailing), e-commerce has brought big brands into our homes via our desktops, tablets and mobiles for twenty years. And web design has evolved in marketing this multi-billion dollar industry.

But what did some of the first online stores look like? Well let’s take a look, shall we?

Pizza Hut was one of the very first companies to jump online, offering an online ordering portal. It’s first attempts in 1996 were, shall we say, a little drab?²

(Use the A/B scroller to compare.)

Pizza Hut: 1996 vs 2017

Dell and Apple unsurprisingly got in early doors, too. Both started with sites that looked very much like the classified section of a local newspaper^3,4.

Dell: 1996 vs 2017

Apple: 1997 vs 2017

Now renown for its innovation, Nike also started early but their first efforts were, well, elementary to say the least⁵.

Nike: 1998 vs 2017

Eek! That 1998 Nike site looks like a kid’s school project. A bad one.

By 2037, we may end up saying something similar about our websites today. I just hope that my website can make me coffee by then 🙂

On a more serious note, with the web design technology we have today, even small businesses can project the power of a big brand. And very few things can market your business like a good website.

If you’re looking to get into e-tailing (read: getting your own online shop going), have a look at some of the amazing features of our new e-com demo theme: Shoppe.

SOURCES

¹ Attention Shopers: Internet is Open (New York Times)

² Pizza Hut 1996 via the Wayback Machine

³ Dell 1996 via the Wayback Machine

⁴ Apple 1997 via the Wayback Machine

⁵ Nike 1998 via the Wayback Machine

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