The store sells its goods to a customer, who must physically come in to make the purchase. The mail-order model is a variation on the retail store model. It simply uses a different distribution channel to complete the transaction. Here, the customer does not physically come to a place to purchase but rather orders an item via phone, mail, fax, email, or the web. The catalog, more than anything else, is representative of mail-order.
Web sites combine qualities of both a store and a catalog.
You do not have to get in your car, drive there, and park. You can find every product imaginable, and never wait in line to make a purchase. Software merchants have even been able to fulfill the promise of instant product delivery by allowing customers to unlock and download live products upon purchase, but the marketplace has quickly extended far beyond that niche, and now virtually everything is, or will be, available for sale on the Internet. A variant of the retail model on the Internet is the virtual mall . As with a traditional mall, a virtual mall is a collection of storefronts.