They had taken an insular, defensive stance on building Net businesses, vigorously defending whatever share of the market they had gained. And when these companies were told to halt their costly battling for market share, they were left with a porous corporate machine ill-equipped to stop the flood of individual customers slipping from their grasp. You cannot expect to grow an Internet business without regard to your customers. However, the key point you must understand is that by getting online, you are committing your business to serving individual customer relationships. One by one.
Friction slows things down enough to leave an impression in a customer's mind.
And almost every possible method for creating that staying power with consumers has been postulated and trialed. And yet, for all the work, this consumer-company bond has never really gelled. That pop-up is disruptive. Amazon has worked to fill its site with features to help spur purchases, but those features are also useful on their own. I often use Amazon to research an author, a band, etc.