Click-And-Mortar Models - Essay Example

Click-And-Mortar Models Click-And-Mortar Models Background The debates and application of internet in marketing has shifted from business models for Web-based customers to click-and-mortar e-commerce. Click-and-mortar e-commerce focuses on traditional companies drawing synergies from integrating click-and-mortar e-commerce in their marketing strategies. The integration of click-and-mortar strategies supplements other online marketing mechanism based on Website with the physical presence in the market palace and retail outlet. Click-and-mortar strategy helps firms keep pace with changing consumer’s behaviors through generating synergies, customer’s value and strengthening the relations with existing customers in geographical places. Click-and-mortar firms maintain links, continuously serve relocating consumers and re-establish contacts with such customers. Click-and-mortar e-commerce leads to inexpensive purchasing in existing markets culminating into attractions of new customers. The degree of click-and-mortar integration determines the extent to which firms exploit synergies, chances of targeting different customers and geographical markets. The primary focus of the click-and-mortar e-commerce is to strengthen the existing customer’s relations to current markets (Brodie, Brookes and Little, 2009, p. 49). Offline-service traditional firms shift to online marketing to reduce operating costs while remaining relevant in the local markets. Retails firms employ click-and-mortar e-commerce to alter the value propositions of particular products and services sold to target new customers within the existing markets. Definition of the problem Several studies have pointed out to more pros attached to the incorporating click-and-mortar strategies in marketing strategies firms (Adelaar, Bouwman and Steinfield, 2004, p. 87). Higher degrees of click-and-mortar integration presents firms with effective opportunities to derive synergies with respect to online and offline channels (Gladwell, 2001, p. 58). Firms that employ this strategy benefit from the competitve advantages since the strategy is always accompanied by restructuring that strengthen the competitiveness of firms besides complementing existing business practices redefining markets further (Brodie, Brookes and Little, 2009, p. 43). A higher degree of click-and-mortar integration thus points towards greater opportunities to target new markets over times based on the increased relations to customers.  Despite the benefits of click-and-mortar to firms, a greater degree of integration is attached to higher Information Technology investments as well as intangible organizational costs, a trade faced by customers with respect to its influence on the customer’s convenience and relationships. Click-and-mortar pose a trade-off between reduced channel interaction cots and enhancing the value of the customers (Porter, 2001, p. 76). Retailers at times use channel hand-offs to search for the lowest total customers interaction cost that occur within various sale phases (Glynn, 2012, p. 43). Customers thus do not introduce or enforce the widest range of potential channel hand-offs based on the knowledge of trade-off decisions between customer convenience on one end as well as IT integration costs besides organizational redesign on the end side (Adelaar, Bouwman and Steinfield, 2004). It is against these ground that the current study will be conducted to uncover the knowledge gap and to design possible effective ways of how firms can fully invest in click-and-mortar models to benefits from its sound packages. Aims What is the impacts of click-and-mortar model in market penetration? How does click-and-mortar model influence customer relation in relation business? Why do some firms find it difficult to fully invest in click-and-mortar models? General Objectives To establish the influence of growing adaptations of the click-and-mortar model on the consumer relation in retail sector. Specific Objects To establish find out the impacts of click-and-mortar in market penetration To uncover how click-and-mortar models influence customer relations To understand the constraints to full investment in click-and-mortar models by customers Scope of the Study The study will be conducted amongst 100 customers served by retail companies that have employed the click-and-mortar strategies in their marketing portfolio. The study questionnaires will be issued to these customers to help in the data collection of each particular customer served by various click-and-mortar embraced firms. Only those customers served by traditional retail firm that have incorporated click-and-mortar strategy will form the bedrock of our study. The participants that have knowledge about the significance of Click-and-Mortar strategy stands the better position to help us uncover the primary focus of this strategy and the benefits it has to marketing. Online marketing has shifted to application of Click-and-Mortar strategy in order to retain and attract new customers within the existing firms. Research Approach and Methodology This will be an exploratory quantitative research that aims at uncovering the influence that click-and-mortar models have on the customers’ relation within the business organizations. The quantitative exploratory primary research is advantageous in this study as it will help get the first-hand information from these customers and besides giving the number of customer and firm that recognize the significance of the click-and-mortar strategy. Besides, the multiple data will be collected from various customers and hence help minimize bias and non-representation of the population. However, primary quantitative research poses a challenge of self-completion of the questionnaires which limits control of research besides failure by key participants to fully complete the questionnaires. Self-report is also disadvantageous due to issuance of pattern results or outcomes. The data will be collected through semi-structured interviews through questionnaires based on a common mechanism. The questionnaire is effective in this study as it is time-saving, large coverage as well as self-report that minimize influence by other people during the completion of the questionnaires. The data anlysis emphasize on the effects of channel integration on customers value, customer type and geographical market. The analysis will be embedded on the data from the completed questions based on the SPSS analysis. The results noted from the analysis will thus be beneficial to policy makers as well as marketers in order to help attract more customers and for Click-and-Mortar firms to capture more customers. Research Considerations & Rationale The research considers higher degree of biasness in the data collection based on the need to showcase the correct influence of click-and-mortar models to customer’s relations. The research further considers the inclusion of both large and small customers per product segment to meet the variability to the possible click-and-mortar models. The method is relevant since it presents an avenue to include those customers that have embraced and benefited from click-and-mortar models thus leaving out the many other customers that may have not contributed much to the data collection. This method will help us get answer the research question and objective already mentioned. The data will be analyzed through the SPSS and will validate the hypothesis of the study based on benefits the customers (participants) will attach to click-and-mortar models. Therefore, the primary focus of click-and-mortar e-commerce (being able to strengthen existing customer’s relationships with the existing markets) will be assessed. In addition, the reason behind the growing trend of integrating click-and-mortar models in retail outlets will be unearthed besides the constraints that makes it difficult by some customers to fully embrace and benefit from the installation of click-and-mortar models. Limitation of the Study The analysis of this study limits the interpretation of the outcomes based on several factors. The researcher may be unable to effectively analyze click-and-mortar e-commerce with respect to commodities sold by the customers investigated. This challenge is due to the complexity of these analysis due to the fact that several customers embrace product assortment inclusive of both specialized and standard commodities. The approach may also be unable to clearly distinguish between new and existing customers as well as new and existing markets as it is a common knowledge that online ordering appeals to new customers but frequently existing customers have also been attracted to online ordering hence difficulty to showcase the impacts of click-and-mortar models with respect to retail customer’s relations. Sampling The random sampling method will be used to obtain a 100 customers served by click-and-mortar firms that have thrived to integrate click-and-mortar models within their marketing strategies to attract and retain new customers within the existing market. Only customer using benefiting from the click-and-mortar strategy will form the representative of the excluded customers to respond to the questionnaires that will be sent to them to aid in the data collection of relevant information needed for the study. Random sampling method will aid in the study with respect to both inclusion and exclusion criterion and will help minimize bias as well as ensuring proper representation of the population under study. The random sampling will be helpful in minimizing biasness leading to selecting customers effectively that will help give a proper representation of the population comprising males and female participants. This randomization is an effective method and an added advantageous to this study to help collect the data that will vividly depicts and represent the whole population of customers. The data collected will thus help make a generalization about the influence of growing adoption of the Click-and-Mortar Models in these customers’ marketing strategies. On the hand, the random sampling may leave out potential customers that could have provided better information relevant to the study. However, great care will be taken to ensure minimal cases of biasness in the sample through upholding a higher level of equal chances of these customers being the respondents without any form of favoritism. Reference Adelaar, T., Bouwman, H., and Steinfield, C. (2004) Enhancing customer value through click-and-mortar e-commerce: implications for geographical market reach and customer type. Telematics and Informatics, 21, pp.167-182. Ashworth, C. J., Schmidt, R. Ä., Pioch, E. A., and Hallsworth, A. 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