in 1979 michael aldrich developed an online shopping system, a type of e-commerce, using a modified domestic colour television equipped with the prestel chip set and connected to a real-time transaction-processing computer via a domestic dial-up telelphone line. during the 1980s he sold these online shopping systems to large corporations mainly in the uk. all the terminals on these systems could also access the prestel systems. aldrich installed a travel industry system in thomson holidays in 1981.