Online Marketing – the Disadvantages
Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing or E-marketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing including low costs in distributing information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Online Marketing, both in terms of instant response and in eliciting response, are unique qualities of the medium. Though it offers a number of advantages, it has to see from other side also, its disadvantages.
Because Online Marketing requires customers to use newer technologies than traditional media, not all people may get use of it. Low speed Internet connections are one barrier. If companies build overly large or complicated web pages, some Internet users struggle to download the information on dial up connections or some mobile devices.
From the buyer’s perspective, another limitation is the inability of shoppers to verify the product before a purchase. In Online Marketing the goods are tangible. However, it is an industry standard that internet marketing vendors should have liberal refund policies and in store pick up services to assure customers. Lack of ability to measure impact, a lack of internal capability, and difficulty convincing are the most common draw backs of Online Marketing.
For both companies and consumers, security concerns are very important. Many consumers are hesitant to buy items over the Internet because they do not trust that their personal information will remain private. Recently, some companies that do Online Marketing have been caught giving away or selling information about their customers. Several of these companies have guarantees on their websites, claiming customer information will be private. Some companies that buy customer information offer the option for individuals to have their information removed from the database which is known as opting out. However, many customers are unaware that their information is being shared and are unable to stop the transfer of their information between companies.
Another major concern the consumers have with the Online Marketing is whether or not they will receive exactly what they purchase. Trustworthy, reliable merchant performance has been a consumer concern since the inception of ecommerce, and to date, merchants have attempted to address these concerns by investing in and building strong consumer brands and by leveraging merchant / feedback rating systems and ecommerce bonding solutions. All of these solutions are not enough to assure consumers that their transactions will be free of problems. For the online payment mechanisms the websites provide a back-end buyer protection systems to address problems after they surface but still there are many problems to tackle with.
Online Marketing cannot be always cheap. The cost of software, hardware, web site design, maintenance of your site, online distribution costs and of course, time, all must be factored into the cost of providing your service or product.
After all there is no replacement for good old fashioned customer service. The majority of internet marketers lack customer service and inquiry response programs. As a result, many online visitors to your site will already have painted your site as poor service before they have even contacted you. The majority of websites also have poor navigation, which makes it difficult for your visitor to find what they are looking for. Many sites were created with a marketing view, not a customer service point of view.
Thanks the Techstore Team
