Ninety-six percent of the companies use the WWW as an interactive brochure, providing information about their companies, the products and/or services they offer and contact information. This is a good place to begin a WWW presence. Interactive brochures range from simple information provided in a text-only form, to so-called "flat ads", to highly sophisticated multimedia productions, with full-scale audio, video and interactive capabilities. Flat ads, essentially single page electronic flyers, are often the first step into an eventual multimedia format. They allow companies to get an initial feel for the marketplace. Even these relatively simple sites on the Internet send a message to current customers, potential customers and competitors that a company is on the cutting edge. .
Other Internet sites provide users with a variety of multimedia materials, including SoundBits, video clips, allowing access to detailed product information. .
The virtual storefront is used by 12 percent of the corporate WWW pages. It makes use of the same features as the interactive brochure, but interested consumers can browse through merchandise and purchase items online. Both large and small businesses have taken advantage of this particular aspect of Internet access. Perhaps one of the greatest barriers to virtual storefronts is the issue of on-line payment security. A secondary challenge for Internet shopping is the access speed for popular virtual storefronts. Slow server speeds make shopping somewhat tedious and time consuming, negating many of the perceived benefits for this purchasing option. As access speeds increase, this problem will diminish. Although the majority of large companies have well-established physical distribution systems, virtual storefronts have a great leveling effect, instantly transforming small companies into worldwide distributors by providing a source of direct sales. It is difficult to determine the size of a company by its World Wide Web page.