This is a significant concept: The public views online selling as a single entity, not as the sum of different parts.
[link|http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/12079.html|The Hard-Fought Lessons of E-Commerce]

By Paul A. Greenberg
E-Commerce Times
July 19, 2001

Online customers want simplicity, from the visuals they encounter on the home page, to the ways in which they return the product if necessary.
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E-Commerce 101

* We're all in this together: The real important element of studying e-commerce has everything to do with the cumulative nature of its evolution.
So far we've learned that the public views online selling as a single entity, not as the sum of different parts. As a result, if one Web site makes a glaring mistake, it sullies the reputation of e-tailers overall. That goes for poor fulfillment, exposure of personal data or any of the other many errors e-tailers have already committed.

In the brick-and-mortar world, if Sears makes a mistake, Kmart is not generally harmed by it. Online, if Sears.com fails, Kmart affiliate BlueLight.com can suffer consequences.