Marketing opportunities in the digital world

With the birth of the World Wide Web, the current decade has witnessed tremendous evolution in the media environment, and indicates that electronic commerce, defined as the electronic exchange of information, goods, services, and payments, has finally come of age. Despite the fast-growing popularity of electronic commerce and presence of many companies on the virtual market, the opportunities offered by this new environment are still unknown. Many marketers still approach the Web based on the traditional mass communication model. The paper addresses the opportunities offered by the Web to marketers. Its approach considers the Web as a two-way communication model in which four different communication states can take place. The paper also suggests the necessity of new concepts and models for marketers to manage their Web sites, and then presents the opportunities supporting the marketers' objectives in the new environment.