Brick and mortar versus dot com companies

Brick-and-Mortar vs. dot.com companies

In the age of information technology, it is inevitable that people will not be caught on with the technological developments concerning business operations and organization. With the prevalence of the Internet, companies are fast extending their operations to include online selling of their products and services. This form of customer service has gained popularity, primarily because it is the most accessible and cheapest medium through which companies can showcase to customers their products and services wherever they are located in the world.

Thus, in a span of few years, the Internet has dominated multi-media communications in the fields of marketing, advertising, and other activities that help promote companies and their products and services. There are also emerging business organizations, which are mainly small- to medium-sized businesses, which are created through the Internet, referred to as "dot com" companies.

However, for the year 2004, there has been a remarkable downfall in the return of investment among companies who started out through the Internet. The Internet 'bubble' (pertaining to the rapidly expanding organizations and companies launching their sites through the Internet) has finally burst; and many dot com companies have experienced profit loss, bankruptcy, and eventually sold out to bigger companies or have foiled and ceased to exist in the Internet business world. From the experience of dot com companies, brick-and-mortar companies -- that is, businesses that were established initially through the traditional establishment and institutionalization of a company in the business sector -- have proven that they are stronger and more capable of handling fluctuations in the market of goods and services than the dot coms.

What made the brick-and-mortar companies stronger than the dot coms is that they have a loyal following among their customers. This means that the former has become an institution and has established a tradition that dot coms cannot compete with; the vast number of dot com companies has also made it impossible for them to create a following of customers or capture at least a specific segment of the consumer market. In effect, Internet sites promoting goods and services of the brick-and-mortar companies served as supplementary promotional medium through which they can further extend their services to include customers outside the U.S.