I remember ordering a CD via CDNow and a very rudimentary SMS interface on my phone around 1996. It took about 10 minutes to go through the entire process, but I did it while at the movies with my wife, waiting for the previews to start and we both thought it was just SO advanced.
That is an epically cool story from the early days of the Internet / web. Thanks for sharing!
A brief reminder that SMS has nothing to do with the internet (TCP/IP) or the web (HTTP).
Netflix also was founded in 2007, not 1997.
I bought a CD from CDNOW over Telnet in the early 90's!
I also remember telnet BBS's became popular for a few years when I was in college 91-93.
That's how I ordered my first CDs online: via a Telnet interface. It sounds crazy 30 years later.