Commonalities - OnLine/OffLine
Formation process occurs “online;” fulfillment process occurs “offline.”
Medium is irrelevant (musty solicitor’s office or website).
All transactions, regardless of whether they are for financial services and products or for commercial products or services, are essentially a combination of online and offline events
Notes:
Think of the formation process as occurring “online” and the fulfillment process as occurring “offline.” The musty old solicitor's office in which the purchase money mortgage for Blackacre is signed is thus conceptually no different from the latest Internet real estate website. They are both media. A stock purchase under the old Buttonwood Tree and the purchase of an interest in a mutual fund over the Internet are not essentially different from this standpoint.
Even where the product or service is fulfilled digitally, as in the cases of a software or music download, tele-medicine, legal advice, architectural drawings, etc., formation and fulfillment are separate processes.
Thus, it is easy to see that all transactions, regardless of whether they are for financial services and products or for any commercial products or services, are essentially a combination of online and offline events.