Clickiness and Stickiness: Modern Lessons from the Early Days of E-Commerce

What are the four walls that surround your business? And how sticky is your floor?

When I worked at CompuServe’s Electronic Mall in the late ’80s and early ’90s (yes, back when online shopping had no pictures, no Amazon, no smartphones, and we didn’t even store credit card info for your convenience), I often felt like there were two types of employees: those who knew EVERYTHING about computers… and me.

Coming from a background in managing brick-and-mortar malls, my knowledge of digital mall management and marketing could probably fit on one of those 5.25” floppy disks (you know, back when “floppy” really meant floppy).

As time went on, I got the hang of things enough to be useful to my boss and team. But one thing I didn’t understand at first was the obsession with how long people stayed on a page. To me, it was all about transactions. Who cared if you spent an extra minute staring at a screen if it didn’t lead to a sale?

If it doesn’t make the cash register ring, it doesn’t mean a thing.

(You see, back in the day, making a sale meant hearing that satisfying “cha-ching” as the register opened.)

Fast forward to today, now that I teach marketing, I get it. Here’s the brick-and-mortar analogy:

If the customer isn’t in your store—whether that store is physical or online—they aren’t buying anything. If they walk out empty-handed, there’s no sale. Likewise, if they leave your website or app without converting, you didn’t make the sale.

Back then, it felt like people were putting the cart before the horse. But every second a customer spends within your space – your four walls, on your page (or in your store) – is an opportunity to move them toward making a purchase. Keeping them engaged with your stickiness is key, but friction or confusion can drive them away.

At the end of the day, your top priorities remain sales, profit, and building your brand. How long someone lingers matters, but only if you can turn that attention into action.

What do you think? Let’s keep the conversation going!

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