The Web’s Impact on Selling Techniques: Historical Perspective and Early Observations

:Marketing and sales techniques evolve in response to the emergence of new information technologies. This article reviews how marketing and sales changed in response to telecommunications and database technologies in the late 1970s; EDI, database marketing, personal computing and other technologies in the 1980s; imaging, video, CD-ROM, facsimile, and other technologies in the early 1990s; and the technologies associated with the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s. Research examining the early experiences of companies selling industrial and consumer products and services on the Web is discussed, followed by suggestions for further research.