Internet marketing, or online marketing, refers to advertising and marketing efforts that use the Web and email to drive direct sales via electronic commerce, in addition to sales leads from Web sites or emails. Internet marketing and online advertising efforts are typically used in conjunction with traditional types of advertising like radio, television, newspapers and magazines.

Most email services have been around for years, but if you think you’ve seen it all before, you should take another look. Hotmail is a distant memory: Microsoft has moved its users to Outlook.com, and has worked hard to steal Gmail users with its scroogled campaign (scroogled.com).Mail is probably Yahoo!’s most successful division and millions of people rely on it for their messaging. Google frequently tweaks Gmail, Outlook.com is integrated into Windows 8, reviewed, Apple has given iCloud (and therefore Mail) an iOS 7 makeover, and there are smaller players including GMX and AOL with solid services.

Information Technology can be an important source of competitive advantage over competitors as well as allow firms to build business models using IT infrastructure and applications as enablers to provide better customer service and be an important differentiator. A relevant example would be TESCO's use of technology in the UK grocery sector.