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Online shopping is the process consumers go through to purchase products or services over the Internet. An online shop, e-shop, e-store, Internet shop, webshop, online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping mall.
The metaphor of an online catalog is also used, by analogy with mail order catalogs. All types of stores have retail web sites, including those that do and do not also have physical storefronts and paper catalogs.
Online shopping is a type of electronic commerce used for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions.
&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com">eBay, the world's largest online auction site, is one of the better known examples. Like most auction companies,
&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com">eBay does not actually sell goods that it owns itself. It merely facilitates the process of listing and displaying goods, bidding on items, and paying for them. It acts as a marketplace for individuals and businesses who use the site to auction off goods and services.
Several types of online auctions are possible. In an English auction the initial price starts low and is bid up by successive bidders. In a Dutch auction, multiple identical items are offered in one auction, with all winning bidders paying the same price -- the highest price at which all items will be sold (treasury bills, for example, are auctioned this way). Almost all online auctions use the English auction method.
Globalisation and the reach of the internet have allowed the auction business model to extend beyond its traditional realm of the trade in goods into the area of service provision. Outsourcing companies exist, such as guru.com and getafreelancer.com that now provide services such as programming and web design as the result of a competitive bidding auction process. Others, such as earn.co.uk have taken the auction model to the provision of local services.
Games include Texas Hold 'em (No Limit and Fixed Limit), Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven-card Stud and Seven-card Stud Hi-Lo. Stakes range from 0.05/0.10 to 100/200 for limit games, and 0.02/0.04 to 25/50 for No-Limit/Pot-Limit games. Players can play for either real money or play money. All poker variants offered at real money tables are offered at play money tables. Party Poker offers a bad beat jackpot, which has at times grown to over $700,000 USD.