The prototype of modern online stores appeared much earlier than the World Wide Web. Back in 1979, Michael Aldrich, who supplied communications networks to the UK, invented "video text". This technology launched a live broadcast of catalogs with a product and contact information that can be contacted to purchase these products.

Thomson Holidays in 1981 already thought about the idea of ​​creating B2B (eng. Business to Business, literally "business for business") - this term defines the type of economic and information interaction, which is classified depending on the type of interacting entities.