Internet Marketing Customers Prefer Internet Marketing Because

Internet Marketing

Customers prefer Internet marketing because Internet provides the ability to easily custom tailor specifications, such as in the case of buying a computer online from Dell. In addition, Internet search engine offers consumers to find the best bargain price of a product and service. In some cases, electronic brokers facilitate shopping by presenting the offerings in order of some important characteristic, as in the case of travel services arrayed in order of price, or departure time, or airline carrier. Then there are some customers who prefer convenience. To these customers, the Internet provides the best opportunity to order the product from the home (Messmer, 1999).

Price is one of the most important elements for customers buying the simple products from the Internet. The Internet provides the most obvious basis for comparison. Consumers shopping on the Internet can easily access prices from a great many possible suppliers. In addition, prices for goods on the Internet are usually low because the reduced overhead cost. Another price advantage enjoyed by Internet shoppers, at present, is the in many of the products and services ordered through the Internet, they do not pay the state taxes.

The Internet also provides an advertising medium to deliver promotional messages to consumers. The search engine on the Internet provides many opportunities to customers to scan and view different products and services of their interest and order only those products that match their preferences. Finally, the Internet serves to facilitate the transaction. Consumers can make their selection of alternative vendors and alternative products, place an order, and arrange payment without moving from the computer. Ease of use is probably the strongest argument in favor of consumers' use of the Internet for shopping. As the level of technology advances in the short-term future, that ease of use will increase.

The other advantage enjoyed by Internet shoppers is the convenience of the place they shop -- it is from home. The Internet has a world-wide reach and any location is accessible from the shoppers' computers. There is the added convenience of 24-hour a day shopping.

One of the main reasons that customer prefer Internet marketing is that The Internet allows exchanging and sharing of information-based products and services quickly. Because information-based products and services can be shared without reducing their stocks, Internet makes it easier for customers to exchange and share this information conveniently at a far lower delivery cost (Sterne, 1997).

Information-based products are particularly suited for Internet marketing because these products take advantage not only of the digitization of products, but also gain efficiencies on distribution mechanism, resulting in very low transaction costs (Sterne, 1997). Internet marketing reduces that reproduction cost of these products and services by directly delivering the software to the customers' computers.

When information constitutes the core product of the firm, e-commerce can dramatically lower marketing, delivery, and distribution costs. For example, banks and insurance companies offer a large number of information-related products and services, therefore, firms competing in these industries have many opportunities to take the advantage of e-commerce (Watson, Akselsen, and Pitt, 1998). Alternatively, take the case of the publishing or music industry, whose main business is in the information area. Firms in these industries can open-up several new ways of exchanging their products and services to its customers by offering several options of downloading, customization, and "build-on-order." For example, a customer, instead of buying a book, could download only a relevant chapter of his/her choice and make the payment. Similarly, instead of buying a complete album of a song, the customers can download different songs from several music albums and pay for them. In this regard, e-commerce makes it feasible for customers to create and optimize a portfolio of their own choice (Seiders, Berry, and Gresham, 2000).

In some other cases, an Internet can bundle its offering with detailed information, including the remote support, for the operation of its products, and services. Availability of the information on a number of product and service features and characteristics make it easier for customers to search across various products and services on several criteria and make a final selection among those, which fit the criteria.