Click and Click vs. Brick and Click

¶ … Marketing Strategies for Click-and-Click and Brick-And-Click Retailers The marketing strategies of click-and-click and brick-and-click retailers differ, with the strategies linked to their different backgrounds. The marketing strategy needed in an online market also differs with one intended for a store front, with different factors becoming important. The factors associated with Internet stores will now be discussed, with these factors linked to the common marketing approaches taken by click-and-click and brick-and-click retailers. The first characteristic of the Internet store is the importance of the web site.

The web site is the basis of the Internet store, with accessibility and ease-of-use determining whether the customer will purchase from the store and return to the store. The web site is the equivalent of a retail store front's location, if it is easy to get to, customers will be more likely to visit it again. Unlike retail stores, the biggest concern is how easy the store is to move around in.

Ease-of-use is said to be the most significant factor, with ease-of-use comprising three attributes: how quickly the web site downloads, how easy the first page is to understand and how easy it is to navigate between pages (Kotler 48). Click-and-click retailers have built their businesses based on the online presence and so tend to be aware of how important the web site is. Part of their marketing strategy involves making the web site as convenient and easy-to-use as possible.

Brick-and-click companies tend to overlook this aspect, believing that it is their product or their brand name that will attract and keep customers. The brick-and-click company is more likely to view the web site as an additional way to reach customers, without focusing on the characteristics of the web site itself. Macy's is a good example of this, whose web site was particularly slow to load. This was one of the factors that resulted in Macy's online store being a business failure (Greenberg).

The content of the web site is the second important characteristic, with content determining whether the customer will return to the site. The content that is most useful in ensuring customers return to the site are special offers, information, news, contests, humor and games (Kotler 48). The most significant difference between retail and Internet stores, is that with Internet stores, the product is not the most important thing. This important point illustrates a major difference between brick-and-click and click-and-click stores.

Brick-and-click stores are used to having the product as the basis of attracting customers. Advertisements focus on selling the product and its advantages. An example is with Macy's online store, which has now been scaled back. Its advertising program made use of the almost free advertising that e-mail makes possible and focused on promoting ready-to-wear fashions, a product type that was not widely accepted. This focus on the product was unsuccessful in creating sales (Greenberg).

With click-and-click stores, the companies are aware that attracting customers to the site is more important than the products they sell. Click-and-click retailers generally focus more on providing interesting content designed to attract customers to the site, even if they do not purchase anything and make this an important part of their marketing strategy. In contrast, brick-and-click retailers tend to focus more on attracting customers to make a specific purchase.

This focus on the site being more important than the product is also related to the ease of switching that is a major characteristic of Internet stores. A product sold at one Internet retailer is also available at many others. For example, a book or DVD is the same, no matter what store it is purchased from. While customers cannot conveniently visit a number of stores to purchase a product at a retail store, with Internet stores other store fronts are just a click away.

This means the Internet retailer has to give people a reason not just to purchase the product, but to return to them to purchase the product. One study of brand loyalty in Internet markets found that even though switching costs were so low in the market, brand loyalty still existed. The study found that 70% of CD and book.