Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, a revolution has been taking place in the retail market. The constant evolution of new technologies is playing an important part in this revolution. The most important technology that has changed our way of life and the functioning of the retail market is the internet.

Developed in the early 1960’s, the first purpose of the internet was to create a new way of communication in the USA which would survive if a nuclear conflagration happened. Thanks to the emergence of the World Wide Web, the appearance of hypertext and the addition of new devices such as the mouse, has made it easier for novice users to navigate on web pages. Moreover, with the democratization of the web, a commercial interest appeared throughout the network. The first e-commerce appeared on the internet around 1995 in the USA and 1997 in the UK (M. De Kare-Silver, 2001). Today, “a webolution” is taking place.

I. Recent growth of e-retailing

The consumers are always looking for more convenient, easier, quicker and of course cheaper things. Some themes have to be identified to understand the development of e-retailing but also the way people are consuming. First, nowadays, people suffer from “time poverty”. They have less and less time for themselves so consumers will try to find the product and the service that will allow them to save time, do things easily and of course improve their life-style. Moreover, according to USA Today quoted by M. De Kare-Silver in his book e-shock (2001), we moved into an “I want it now” society. Because of their time poverty, consumers are more demanding. They don’t want to be dependant on the opening hours of high street shops; they want to buy what they want, when they want. Due to this, retailers change their ways to inform their customers. Today, consumers can find all the information they need on the web.

Another important change has driven electronic commerce forward. This one had been