Opening a web storefront establishes a company's presence on a new communications medium. Although most advertisers spend only a small amount of their advertising expenditure on the Internet, the costs of developing and maintaining web storefronts or company home pages should be considered as part of the advertising expenses. A web store invariably includes information about products. By providing extensive information about products, a web store may have a better chance to succeed. A computer modem seller might provide extensive information about communications standards, network architecture, and so forth to appeal to a wide audience. Content-rich web pages lure visitors just as flashy advertisements induce consumers.

By providing interaction with consumers, web pages also act as efficient sales assistants who not only provide product information but also help consumers to choose a product. Such a two-way interaction through sales assistance often improves the market efficiency by providing a better match between consumers and products. Therefore, a web storefront goes beyond simply being an alternative advertising channel, but becomes a tool for integrated marketing.

Offering sales assistance via web storefronts bypasses the problem of trust. Although knowledgeable sales assistants provide invaluable services, customers often do not fully trust them. In physical markets, customers are uncertain whether sales assistants are telling them all they need to know, whether they are saying different stories to different customers, and whether their assistance is trustworthy. Many people suspect a sales assistant will try to sway them to order more expensive items than is necessary.

On the Internet, what the electronic sales assistant provides to customers is "printed on the wall" for everyone to see. Automated sales assistants cannot lie and thus are more credible than human assistants. To make web page assistants more like their human counterparts, a web store can customize its information and present it to predetermined, screened customers, increasing the possibility of telling different stories to different customers. Nevertheless, the prevalence of computer hackers and online pseudo-identities makes such targeted sales pitches more difficult than in physical markets.