Looking Ahead to Ecommerce Shopping 3.0

[mandy]

In the first generation of shopping, Shopping 1.0, the full shopping cycle -- awareness of product, review of choices, selection, purchase and consumption -- occurred within a single store visit.

With the advent of paper catalogs (and later their Internet-based cousins), Shopping 2.0 deconstructed this tight shopping cycle into separate activities -- awareness through mass advertising, selection and purchase through images and descriptions outside of the store context and when it was convenient for the consumer to do so, and delivery and consumption at a later date when the product was delivered to your home.

We are now entering Shopping 3.0, which combines the high-touch, unified shopping life cycle of the physical store with the convenience of the online/paper catalog...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/7FnqzxqA...-Era.xhtml