Interactive home shopping: the format of the future?

In the never ending pursuit of convenience, and the ´best bargain´, a number of home shopping services have been developed. These delivery services include mail order catalogs, television programs, dedicated cable channels, and supported videotapes, videologs, and radio shows. A number of interactive shopping services have also appeared such as online computer services, videotext, and more recently two-way hybrid telecommunication prototypes such as J.C. Penny´s Telaction and GTE´s Main Street project. In the future, this line-up may be expanded to include any of a number of next-generation interactive home consumer systems such as CDI (compact disc interactive), DVI (digital video interactive), interactive videotape and broadband fiber optic services. Is interactive shopping the wave of the future?.<>