Comparing conventional marketing and internet marketing for small business, the fundamentals of small business marketing strategies remains pertinent to the success of online selling.
There are still many hurdles that internet marketing for small business need to cross before we can start enjoying the full trust of online transactions just like that of conventional brick and mortar businesses. Here are a few amongst the many barriers that probably are key to hindering the online selling process.
It is a very different thing when you view a print advertisement on the newspaper as compared to an online advertisement on a webpage. The latter requires to be loaded before the online user can see the page and the loading time depends on the network competency. Internet networks are still not entirely compatible globally and some systems may take a much longer time to load than others. This could cause marketers to lose sales in the process. Hence, the trick is to graphics very selectively only when you absolutely need to, so as to ensure that the loading time is kept to an acceptable level.
Note that when you buy something online, you are unable to touch, smell, taste and feel it. You are literally buying that item you see on your screen but there is always a chance that you may not get the actual product that you intended to buy based simply on a picture. Hence, the simple solution to those of you who are compulsive online buyers, is to buy items which are not required to keep a shelf life, nor do you need to touch and feel them before you commit to the purchase, namely digital products for instance. And also ensure that you have a generous refund process to go with it.
In addition, you are unable to verify the authenticity of the product. In fact, online purchases are the epitome of Caveat Emptor, let the buyer beware. While you do have a recourse in that, you can request a refund if you find that the product you purchased do not live up to the product claims, there is no guarantee that the seller will honor your refund. So in order to ensure that you have a good buying experience online, only shop at reputed and trusted online stores with the proper online payment process in place.
According to statistics, in the recent two years, consumers buying online take up about a quarter of all online users. Indeed, we have now reached the stage when we can now trust online sellers a little better than a few years ago, especially with the advancement in online payment technology and online security.