What were the very first shops to be launched on the Internet?  Is it known 
which takes the prize for being the first?  According to Hobbs Internet 
timeline <http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/#1990s> the first 
online shops arrived during 1994 but it doesn't name any of them or say which 
was the first.

Internet stores didn't just pop up one day, it was a more gradual
transition from traditional mail-order businesses to full-blown web
stores. People shared the phone numbers of mail order businesses via
email and USENET from the very beginning, then stores started
accepting communication via email and making catalogs available
online.

A lot of interesting information can be derived from the archived
USENET discussions available on Google Groups (
http://groups.google.com ). The following information was derived
therefrom.

The Computer Literacy Bookshop in San Jose, CA allowed direct-dial
access to a store-run BBS system as early as 1986, though I don't
believe it took orders:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22computer+literacy+bookshop%22&hl=en&safe=off&as_drrb=b&as_mind=12&as_minm=5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=14&as_maxm=7&as_maxy=1992&selm=242%40msunix.UUCP&rnum=5

By January 1992, Computer Literacy Bookshop accepted email orders:

"...organizations can establish corporate accounts for email orders
(do not email Visa numbers [bad, bad, very bad]). To establish email
orders: orders@clbooks.com" [Jan 18, 1992]

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=clbooks&hl=en&safe=off&as_drrb=b&as_mind=12&as_minm=5&as_miny=1987&as_maxd=14&as_maxm=3&as_maxy=1992&selm=1992Jan20.131543.3419%40hubcap.clemson.edu&rnum=8

Also in 1992, people downloaded the catalog of a CD-by-modem company
and posted it to an FTP server:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=compact+disc+connection+ftp+catalog&hl=en&safe=off&as_drrb=b&as_mind=12&as_minm=5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=14&as_maxm=9&as_maxy=1992&selm=malcolm.698266890%40wrs.com&rnum=4

By July 1992, more bookstores officially accepted orders via email,
including  Quantum Books and Wordsworth Books, both in Cambridge, MA:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%2Bwordsworth+%2Bemail&hl=en&safe=off&as_drrb=b&as_mind=12&as_minm=5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=14&as_maxm=7&as_maxy=1992&selm=9207131154.AA01638%40iecc.cambridge.ma.us&rnum=1

By 1993, a number of these stores had online catalogs available as
well, probably the first examples of real "Internet Shops":

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%2Bwordsworth+%2Bemail&hl=en&safe=off&as_drrb=b&as_mind=12&as_minm=5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=14&as_maxm=9&as_maxy=1993&selm=1993Sep13.082117.1371%40uwasa.fi&rnum=6

Pizza Hut's online pizza service went live on August 22nd, 1994, but
really only took your name, address, and phone number, and then the
restaurant called you for order details:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&safe=off&threadm=33au55%249c4%40hacgate2.hac.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26selm%3D33au55%25249c4%2540hacgate2.hac.com

The only reason its not a 5 is because I still don't know what the
first shop was (but I think that's because no-one does!)

This is probably not the right answer, but I remember that Pizza Hut on-line 
ordering system was presented in these years as one of the first e-commerce 
application. You may have a glance of the 96' version at 
http://web.archive.org/web/19961219205128/http://www.pizzahut.com/

Kind regards.
Inquiro

Le Monde En Tique, a French Computer Litteracy Bookstore opened its commercial 
web site in 1993. You were able to find a book by its title and/or author 
name...

The original url was http://uplift.fr/met or http://www.uplift.fr/met (I don't 
remember). Then it moved to http://www.lmet.fr (in 1995 or 1996 I guess).

Paul

I recall using GEnie's shopping system, part of the GEnie online service, circa 
1988. This was pre-web, of course... I dialed in with my modem and ordered a 
frozen cake to be delivered to a company. Freaky eh?

Define 'internet'.  We've ordered stuff over the public switched
telephone network for some time.  If you want to be specific, you
might define the network...

The first purchase I made from the public TCP/IP network, using a web
browser, was a CD from CDNOW.  I'm embarassed to mention what CD it
was, though...  Amazon also figures in the early history of the
Internet according to me.

Incidently, your question also begs the question "When was the
commercial internet launched."  In its earlier incarnation as the
ARPANet and later the NSFNet, commerical traffic wasn't officially
allowed on the system.

Thanks everyone for your comments.  I take the point about Internet
needing to be defined, as well as the definition of "shop".

What I meant, but sloppily articulated, was the Web, and ecommerce
enabled shops that let you initiate and complete the full transaction
at the web site.  (So not ones where just catalogues were available
for browsing but you had to order via telephone, or where it all
happened via email).

Judging from the comments so far, it seems like Pizza Hut was probably
the first of the full-blown ecommerce sites on the web.  This is
interesting, I'd always assumed it was Amazon.  If anyone can remember
any earlier one, please post.  :-)

Prodigy offered online shopping in 1988, but this wasn't the Internet.