The word 购物 is formed by combining two characters: 购 (gòu), which means "to purchase" or "to buy", and 物 (wù), which means "thing" or "goods". It is a logical compound where the first character denotes the action and the second character denotes the object of that action, directly creating the concept of "buying goods" or "shopping". This structure mirrors the basic thought process of combining an action with its target to form a complete, common activity.