Website sales have become so popular that other retailers, even those one would never think would take the online approach, have connected. A recent example would, of course, be giant retailers like Wal-Mart, which now compete with Amazon instead of Amazon competing with them. Amazon recently celebrated its 20th anniversary with “huge” sales for its Amazon Prime Day. Wal-Mart retaliated by starting its own sales and making them last longer than Amazon’s Prime Day. Other examples, some unorthodox, are pizza companies that now allow their consumers to go online and purchase products with their computers, even track them.

Even looking back a decade, we would travel to local video stores to rent movies we wanted to watch. That slowly changed with the movies that came in the mail. That idea quickly transitioned into online ways of watching TV and new movies. With the rise of Netflix, an online movie provider, many small companies were put out of business, but at the same time it made our lives much easier. We no longer have to go to a video store to find movies, we no longer have to remember to return the physical copy, and we no longer have to worry about late fees. All of this has been taken care of with the rise of the online video business.

The emergence of online businesses has especially saved consumers a lot of money and that is why we have embraced it so well. It is easier to access the information we need than looking at advertisements on paper or even in a newspaper. Now we Google everything we are looking for and we will find numerous possible purchase options.

With this it is easy to compare the prices of each store and take the cheapest one to Amazon, if we want to match the price, or simply buy on the site where we saw the item. This is not a problem because most online websites offer free shipping if you are willing to wait a bit, and some websites offer discounts for becoming members. Online businesses have changed a lot in our lives from a consumer standpoint and with continued innovation we are moving in a direction that will only get better. As of now, Amazon is testing one-day delivery, more stores are adding to its price-matching policy, and new items (like food) are being offered more widely. It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come since the emergence of online retailers in such a short time, it’ll be amazing to see where we’re going.