Internet Shopping, Essay Example

Like traditional marketplace, marketspace also offers market opportunities to create greater time, place, form, and possession utility. Internet-enabled technologies sometimes do a better job of creating these values as compared to traditional marketplace due to the changing nature of our world in which time continues to become more and more valuable commodity and consumers have higher expectations than ever.

As far as time is concerned, unlike traditional marketplaces, marketspaces do not have time constraints because consumers can shop round-the-clock 7 days a week and 365 days a year. As a result, they can schedule their shopping activities around their respective personal and professional schedules. In addition, not only they have more flexibility but they also save significant time resources during the shopping process. Similarly, marketspaces also hold an edge in terms of place utility because geographical restraints do not exist in marketspaces as they do in marketplaces (Kerin, Hartley, & Rudelius, 2011). Consumers can access online ships literally anywhere as long as they have access to internet-enabled technology which like smart phones fit in the palm of a hand. The virtual nature of online shops also improves time utility by saving valuable time that would otherwise be spent in commuting or browsing from one store to another. In marketspaces, going from one online store to another is a matter of few seconds and so are the search and comparison tasks.

Marketspaces also hold an edge in terms of certain products and services when it comes to possession utility though exceptions exist. Some products and services are such that they can be exchanged or delivered over the internet such as information, digital media, and financial products. Not only it is sometimes more convenient for customers such as receiving online bank statements in place of paper bank statements, they are also delivered much quicker. These products and services that can be delivered over the internet also improve customers’ quality of lives by saving them valuable time resources. But the greatest potential of marketspaces arguably lies in form utility. Internet has resulted in tremendous progress in communication and information technologies which has made it possible to provide customized and personalized solutions to masses (Kerin, Hartley, & Rudelius, 2011). Customization used to be a time-consuming and low-volume process but internet has given birth to the phenomenon sometimes known as mass customization (Pine, 1992). Mass customization refers to providing customized services to masses. In other words, customization in marketspace is an efficient and high-volume process.

In order to compare my product experience in the marketspace with the marketplace, I chose Nike.com and Footlocker. The product I obviously chose for the exercise was Nike sneakers. As far as time utility is concerned, it took me about two minutes to go to Nike marketspace (Nike) and find the exact product I was looking for. I realized it would have been even a quicker process if my internet speed was faster. On the other hand, it took me approximately 25 minutes to get to the nearest Footlocker store and all along I was aware of the fact that there is no guarantee I would find the exact product I am looking for at the store. Fortunately, I did find the exact product line I was looking for though the fact that it is a popular product line also probably helped. While I could shop at Nike.com any time, there were time restrictions in the case of Footlocker so I had to be at the store during the opening hours which again vary from one day of the week to another. Regarding Nike.com, I didn’t need any prior shopping planning because I could do it whenever I had time but in case of Footlocker, I made a plan about a day in advance so that it doesn’t interfere with my other tasks.

As far as the place utility is concerned, the only way I could get the particular Nike shoe in the marketplace was by going to Footlocker or one of the stores with a brick-and-mortar outlet. I realized if I were in a smaller city or town, my choices would have been pretty limited and even zero in extreme cases. But as far as marketspace is concerned, it would not make any difference to me whether I am in a village far away from the city or living right in the city downtown. As long as I had access to internet, I could access the store anywhere. Thus, just like time utility, I also had almost unlimited flexibility in terms of place utility when it comes to marketspace.

But my product choice did help me realize the limitations of marketspace in terms of certain products when it comes to possession utility. I could go and get the Nike shoe the same day at Footlocker store for as long as they had a shoe in my foot size, the probability of which was pretty high given Footlocker’s reputation and scale of operations. But in case of Nike.com, I could not get the product before few days and maybe even weeks, given the type of product I purchased. Another limitation was that while I could personally test the product in marketplace and even feel the texture of the material, it was not possible in marketspace or on Nike.com, given the current state of internet technologies. Thus, my best option was to guess and hope that the product would fulfill my expectations.

But marketplace’s advantage over marketspace was only in possession utility when it comes to Nike show. Marketspace gained the edge in terms of form utility, too because I could customize the product exactly as I wanted and could even opt for personal initials. There were hundreds of, even not thousands of customization options for me including colors and materials at Nike.com. But at Footlocker, I was limited to the color-texture combination that was available at the store and, thus, had quite limited choices as compared to marketspace.

My experiences at Nike.com and at the Footlocker helped me realize the fact that marketspace has been gained popularity at the cost of marketplaces because it offers more options, flexibility, convenience, and better values to the customers. But the advantages sometimes reverse, too depending upon the nature of the product and service such as those that need to be experienced in person and big-ticket items.

Works Cited

Kerin, R., Hartley, S., & Rudelius, W. (2011). Implementing Interactive and Multichannel Marketing. In Marketing: The Core (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Nike. (n.d.). Nike Store. Retrieved November 28, 2013, from http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/air-max-90-essential-shoe/pid-776530/pgid-656159

Pine, B. J. (1992). Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition (1 ed.). Harvard Business Review Press.