The Negative Effects of Online Marketing

While online marketing has created new ways for businesses to reach out to and attract customers, there are some negative consequences for both the marketer and consumer that come with the process. This blog post will concentrate on a few of those negative aspects and comment on their implications for both marketers and consumers.
One negative consequence of online marketing is the immeasurable amount of brand and product information available on the web. This is bad for consumers because this large volume of information may make decisions harder and leave the consumer feeling confused and unsure about which option is best for them.  This also has negative implications for marketers. For example, a consumer looking for gardening equipment may chose to go to a brick and mortar store in their area. In this case the gardening stores in that customers immediate area may be competing for his or her business, but if a customer wants to search online for gardening equipment, there will be thousands of options for that person to chose from all over the world. Obviously this is bad for marketers because the more competition there is, the less likely it is that they will be able to stand out to their audience and capture their business.

The second negative implication I will address involves only the consumer. With the large amount of information and so many product options to chose from on the web, not only is it hard for consumers to pick which brand they want, but it is hard for them to tell which brand is best since they don't get to physically see or touch the product before they purchase it. This is frustrating s because a consumer may order something that appeared to be a certain way on the website, but was completely different in person. Unfortunately, since the internet medium allows for misleading representation of products, many times it can be hard for the consumer to tell between a quality good and a cheaply made one allowing for many unsatisfied customers upon delivery of the product.
Third, is the fact that it is hard for the online marketer or business man to put a face on their customer base when all business is done online. This is why marketing research is so important when it comes to online targeting, because when you use the Internet you may not get as much consumer feedback or understand your customers needs as well as you would running a brick and mortar establishment, making it harder to connect with customers in a relevant way unless research is done.
Essentially, the wide variety of products and impersonal feel of the internet can leave many consumers and marketers feeling overwhelmed and uncertain about many of the choices they are making.