Shopsafe.co.uk has been around since 1999, so we thought we should take a look back at online shopping through the noughties.

When rumours of the dawn of the 'Information Superhighway' began in the early 1990s, there were those who took notice and then the sceptics who claimed it was just another flash in the pan. But since the millennium in particular, nobody can dispute that the internet has become the major global phenomenon of our time, something we now rely on for everything from renewing our car tax to finding romance.

When the first retail websites arrived, advertising static images of their products, it was difficult to envisage one day being able to order and pay for them with the click of a mouse and have them delivered gift-wrapped. For one thing, our snail-paced dial-up connections saw to it that we'd only be able to view a few products before the screen froze up. Cue the arrival of Amazon, who by the turn of the century was already the world's biggest online retailer and quickly expanded its product base from just books to videos, music and electronic gadgets. Ebay wasn't far behind, taking the idea of the jumble sale and turning it into a worldwide shopping obsession. Needless to say, it didn't take long for other retailers to jump on the bandwagon.

Online shopping has changed beyond recognition since its infancy, but the journey has been far from smooth. After an initial surge in sales as a curious population began to dabble, a lack of online security and a growing sense of mistrust held many people back from committing to those purchases. But as consumer concerns were raised and issues of online consumer protection were addressed more and more closely, so our attitudes relaxed. New technologies saw the introduction of secure online payment methods and reliable online credit card processing. In parallel the population became more computer literate, along with our ability to search more efficiently and consequently our willingness to shop at more sites. Not surprisingly this has led to something of a rebirth in online shopping in more recent years.

So what exactly is it that we've been buying? Whereas our initial purchases back in the early years were limited to CDs and DVDs, computer software and electronic equipment, we're now becoming increasingly adventurous, shopping online for all manner of household items and clothing. While men are still more likely to shop online than women, particularly for electronic equipment, women have been the driving force behind the growth in popularity of food and grocery shopping. By 2005 around 40% of the population had bought goods online, rising to 53% in 2007. This percentage is now accelerating faster than ever before, fuelled by cheaper and faster broadband and a range of more innovative sites.

With the huge recent increase in the number of online retailers it's become simple to compare dozens of items online in a fraction of the time than it would take on the high street and savvy shoppers can pinpoint exactly where to source the best bargains. When we consider that limited time is having more and more of an influence on where we buy our goods, it's easy to see why the internet has been a godsend for the cash-rich, time-poor. As the online shopping figures continue to accelerate at an unprecedented pace and as we begin to order our weekly groceries straight from our mobile phones, the question on everybody's lips is exactly where the internet shopping revolution will take us in fifty years time.