Traditional Marketing Vs online Marketing

Traditional Marketing vs. Online Marketing

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Traditional Marketing vs. Online Marketing

One of the challenges that organizations face in the effective transition from selling products using traditional marketing and selling products online is the time it takes to make their online presence. A company needs to take time to have a website created to sell their products. Next, they need to have advertisements created for their products so that their online customers can know of their presence and buy their products (Finch, 2012). Another challenge is ensuring online security. Several times a year, a company’s online account is hacked into. Online shoppers are concerned about the security of online shopping, whether it is safe or not. Giving this assurance to their online customers is a challenge. People also take time to transform from one method of marketing to another. Some people are skeptical about the genuineness of buying products online (Viglia, 2014). A large percentage of people are not computer savvy. Online shopping for them may not be their first option. This means that those are some of the customers they are going to loose.

One of strategies that organizations like Zara and Wal-Mart can implement to increase the effortless movement of customers between the traditional and online channels is to make a strong online presence. This means creating effective and sticky websites and ensuring that their online advertisements reach a wide audience who are interested in their products (Hutt & Speh, 2010).         They need to educate their customers on online shopping, letting them know that they have a website where their customers can buy their products online. They need to go to their customers where they are online; for instance, posting their online advertisements in social networks.  Another strategy is letting their customers know the advantages of shopping online. They need to provide good services online. They should make it easy to purchase products online; this means they need to make sure their customers have a good experience shopping online.        

The benefits of selling through a storefront are: 1) customers will get their products when they want them, 2) customers see and know what they are buying, and 3) customers get to have a personal relationship with the seller. One disadvantage of selling through a storefront is the time taken for a product to move from the manufacturer to the buyer. Another is that the cost of selling products will go up due to the process it takes transport products.                                        Advantages of online marketing are: 1) products are sold at lower prices, 2) there is no unnecessary transportation of the product, and the customers get their products directly from the company. Disadvantages of online marketing are: 1) online accounts may be hacked, and 2) some customers are not computer savvy.