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, P.A. 2001).
Web Site Content.
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, P. 2000). 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, P.A. 2001). 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.
