Shopping is the activity of searching, selecting and ultimately purchasing products and services that fulfill the needs, wants and desires of customers. Sometimes it can take the shape of a leisurely activity like window shopping and sometimes its becomes very demanding and tiring when one shops for goods that are in the high price shopping category like luxury goods and services.. Though shopping is something that we do almost everyday, be it for vegetables, fruits, general grocery to luxury items but study of it takes a totally new shape for researchers, both in the field of psychology and business.

       Infact it becomes extremely difficult sometimes to view shopping as an isolated activity that has no link to a consumer's psychology and with business marketers. Shoppers all around the world vary in their tastes and desires when it comes to buying goods and services, even for similar goods. That differential is what stimulates marketers to provide diversified, flexible and cutting edge goods and services to out do their competitors.

        Since shopping styles vary for different good and services i.e. shopping for groceries would be done differently to shopping done for a plasma television, etc likewise they vary from customer to customer even in the same product category.these buying behaviors ,as they are know in marketing and psychology, assume great importance for businesses as they bring the two parties(i.e the buyers and the sellers)one step closer in understanding what consumers want and desire and how should the businesses deliver thses goods and services under the umbrella of "total customer satisfaction".

        With every passing day we come across new trends emerging in the shopping. There was a time when we had access to only giant shopping mall that would sell everything under one roof and everything was mass marketed. Then emerged the trend of specialty stores and boutiques that catered to special segments of the market and provided good and services at a premium price. Now we have a new trend that has gained roots in the west and is slowly entrenching itself in the eastern markets and that is of online shopping where the whole world of shopping is just one click away. It has opened a whole new world for shoppers for shoppers can shop from giant malls as well as premium stores since everything is one click away. Websites/businesses like e-bay,amazon.com,barnesandnoble,ostrich.com,dell,macy,proflowers,calyxandcorolla,etc all flourishing because they provide customers with one great thing  i.e the comfort of shopping at home and shopping from thousands of sellers.

         Shopping is not as casual and general a process as it seems. It fluctuates seasonally and as mentioned above from customer to customer. All around the world the start of a new season means that its time to put up sales to move out the old stock to make space for new and fresher product lines insync with changed and latest trends. The process seems to be very fast in western markets that are marked by spending economies and fast changing trends in almost all product and service categories. The process of putting up items for massives sales in less often and not as massive in developing countries as they are saving economies and therefore people are not very interested in jumping to the new and latest trends like in fast moving economies.