Many early e-commerce sites were all marketing and hype, were difficult to use and navigate, and were very often no cheaper than the high street alternative. Why visit a cryptically designed, slow to download, site to buy your clothes, for example, when you can pop down to the shops, try it on, and take it home then and there? Another reason for the demise of many e-commerce businesses was the large amount of advertising required to get the message out. Many dot-coms collapsed due to these crippling costs.

There have been a notable number of successes. Amazon.com had a shaky start, with orders arriving later than promised and to the wrong addresses. But they have reorganised their business to focus more on the customer experience, and have seen their customer base and sales steadily rise. Sites that have concentrated on making it as easy as possible to purchase online (using 'one click buying' and a robust returns policy, for example) have come out the winners. Very often these have been the online arms of existing traditional mail order companies that have, only relatively recently, started going online.