Hoofdstuk 1 video Brits E-commerce pioneer Michael Aldrich, British inventor of online shopping on his inspiration on online shopping: Het online archief op aldricharchive.com beschrijft
de grondlegger Michael Aldrich als:

“He had a 38-year career in the IT industry, 20 years of which were spent as CEO of the internati onal computer company Redifon/Rediff usion/ROCC Computers. He reti red as CEO in 2000
and became non-executi ve chairman.” De Engelse krant The Telegraph, omschreef in 2014 – na zijn overlijden – zijn invloed op de huidige E-commerce als: “It was in 1979 that a 26-inch colour television set was installed in Aldrich’s offi ce as a prototype of the Prestel “videotex” informati on service off ered by Post Offi ce Telecommunicati ons, the state-owned predecessor of Briti sh Telecom. Asked to assess its commercial potenti al, Aldrich was initi ally doubtf ul, but then saw the possibility of connecti ng it by telephone line to a computer which could process transacti ons.” De krant omschrijft zijn vinding als: “This was the beginning of what he called teleshopping. It found its fi rst applicati ons in the business-to-business arena in 1981, enabling travel agents to book Thomson holidays for customers, and motor dealers to locate cars of any parti cular specifi cati on made by Ford,
Peugeot-Talbot and later Nissan. The idea proved to be decade ahead of its ti me for retailers but was trialled by Tesco in Gateshead, where one Jane Snowball became the world’s fi rst recorded online grocery shopper in May 1984.”