Effectiveness of Online Selling To Offline Clothing Line Sellers
Effectiveness of Online Selling To Offline Clothing Line Sellers
INTRODUCTION
As Filipinos entered the 21st century, there are a lot of changes that are being
introduced and also there are new ways to earn income like online selling. In today's
generation, social media has greatly influenced people and business persons regarding
online transactions commonly in online selling. It became a new way not only for people
who do not have time going to market place to buy products but it also gives opportunity
to business owners to make profit. Since many Filipino consumers shop online, there are
also many online businesses that are increasing rapidly. Many businesspersons also
engaged in online selling while selling offline and usually most of them advertise their
Offline selling is defined as the marketing activities that does that not involve the
internet and is used to publicize a brand and reach out to wider audience. There are
advantages of offline selling, one is it brings trust in customers as it shows that the owner
of the business is financially stable enough to have a store (Angel Investor Report, 2018).
Customers prefer to see and feel products before purchasing or spending money on them.
the product and hold possession just after the payment for the product. In this
contemporary world, customer’s loyalty depends upon the consistent ability to deliver
quality, value and satisfaction. Another advantage is that you can reach out to your target
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audience in a specific region. You can meet and communicate to your customers in order
to have a good relationship with them and influence their buying behavior towards your
product. However, offline businesses are challenged by the cost involvement due to the
infrastructure facilities and human resources. It not just requires money but requires
continuous supervision. Any commercial space would cost a lot among with the salaries
of the staff involved (Angel Investor Report, 2018). In addition, the market for offline
businesses is usually limited. Since online businesses access wider range of customers,
from online channels to make purchases in physical stores (Hayes, 2019). The main
advantage of businesses doing both online and offline is that it can reach customers not
only in local but also in national level (Basu, 2018). Having both offline and online
selling as an approach to the customers can lead to a great strategy to generate customers.
For instance, a consumer saw a product in an online website, that potential customer will
do information search on the product through the web and if decided, the customer can go
to the physical store to see and test the product. Likewise, if a customer passes by a store,
that customer can search for more information to have extensive knowledge on the
product, analyzed and get satisfied with the information gathered, the customer can go
back to the store and purchase the certain product. On the other hand, the disadvantage of
both online and offline selling is that it does not allow face-to-face interaction where
customers do not physically touch and see the products that they want (Hayes, 2019). So
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when they claim it in offline store of the business, and they do not like the quality or the
product has damage, customers are likely to return it. In addition, Basu (2019) said that
since online businesses have wider reach of customers, they must also compete with
Entirely replacing a physical market with an online strategy, for instance opening
only a web shop instead of both of a physical store and a web shop, does not lead to
better results for the firm (Sinkovics et al., 2013). This conclusion confirms the study
done by Jean (2007) that only implementing online approach does not add to a firm’s
competitive advantage. Hence, it is suggested that a firm should not only rely on the
internet as a sales channel, but they should include offline method to their sales channel.
On the other hand, with the existence of the offline and online approaches in which
companies can sell their products and promote their brands, they need to carefully
consider how they will devote their resources in both fields, meaning, finding the right
harmony between online and offline resource allocation (Anderson et al, 2017).
facilitates automation of marketing activities. This implies that engaging in online selling
helps the business entity to introduce their goods more effectively. However, it only
stated that it has an increase on product awareness but have not stated whether online
A statistical report done by Statista (2018) said that the Philippine online selling
market revenue grew to $840 million or about P44 trillion in 2018 from $688 million or
about P36 trillion in 2017. Revenue is expected to grow about 10.5% annually leading to
a market volume of $996 million dollars or about P53 trillion pesos by 2019. This shows
a positive effect that online selling helped online businesses increase their profitability
because Philippines has the greatest number of internet users in Southeast Asia. However,
the participants of that statistical report are the companies such as Lazada, Shopee,
Zalora, and other more. This does not include small business entities because stall owners
in local places do not engaged in such online selling activities. They use social media,
Although there are studies conducted relevant to the topic, there are still
shortcomings that needS to be filled . First, the researchers will still conduct a study
because they found that in the study of Dharmappa in 2018, it only shows that online
selling increased the product awareness but does not tell much about its effect on the
profitability of the business. Second, In the statistics of the Philippine online selling
market revenue, it dwelled on the big companies, they did not include the small owners
of business stalls that are not popular to the people. Lastly, there is no study conducted in
Baguio City.
The results of the study benefited the researchers as a preparation for their chosen
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tracks. They have an idea on how effective an online selling is and they can consider
better ways of selling methods or marketing strategies in the future. For those students
particularly in the business courses, they can gain insight on marketing methods that is
better to use when they establish their businesses in the future. The teachers, especially
those in the field of business, benefited from the findings of this study for they gained
knowledge on what marketing method is better to teach their students for them to acquire
necessary skills. And the students can be taught with better and upgraded versions
regarding the advantage and disadvantage of online selling and also on what marketing
methods is better to use. Business owners of clothing lines can also gain insights in
planning their business especially which selling method is better to use and further
improve the allocation of their resources. In this case, it raises the success rate of the
business when they know the right marketing strategy use. New and incoming business
owners can also utilize the findings to help them improve their business. It also served as
a basis in encouraging them on not only the way of offline selling but also in
implementing better online transactions to raise product awareness and profitability. This
also served as a related literature and a guide for the future researchers that are going to
This study aimed to know the effectiveness of online selling to offline sellers of
1. What is the average monthly income of the offline clothing line sellers before and
income of the offline clothing line sellers before and after doing online selling.
The study dwelt on the average monthly income of the offline clothing line
sellers, who also engage in online selling, located at the central business district of
Baguio City. Hence, there was a comparison on the average monthly income before and
On the other hand, it does not include the businesses that are not located at the
central business district of Baguio City, businesses that only do offline selling, businesses
that only do online selling and the stores that sell other products other than clothing.
Conceptual Framework
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
the changes on the average monthly income of the offline clothing line sellers before and
research design should be use when the researchers consider two variables (not
manipulated) and established a formal procedure to compare and conclude that one is
better than the other if significant difference exists. In this study, the researchers
compared what marketing strategy- offline selling or both offline and online selling, was
better and more effective to clothing line businesses. Using this research design, the
researchers was able to identify and analyze the data gathered from the respondents.
Specifically, which selling method had a greater effect in their income before and after
selling online.
The respondents in this study were the offline clothing line sellers who were also
involved in online selling. Simple random sampling was used by the researchers in the
collection of data since it is a method used to select a smaller sample size from a larger
population and used it to research and make generalizations about the larger group
(Depersio, 2018). In addition, simple random sampling was used because there is no
exact population of the target respondents. All of these respondents were drawn from the
The researchers utilized survey questionnaire to collect data from the respondents.
The survey questionnaire was carefully designed by the researchers since there were no
tools that they can adopt/adapt, and it underwent validation through the three senior high
teachers namely Mrs. Rowena Rojas, Mrs. Angeline Garcia, and Mr. Melvin Alamag
who were experts in the field of business. After that, the non-respondents of the study
served as a medium to test the reliability of the questionnaire. Their responses underwent
Chronbac Alpha with a confidence level of 95% and significance level of 5%. If it is
accepted and found reliable, it will then be administered to the respondents. However, if
it was unaccepted and found not reliable, there should be a revision of the structures and
contents of the questionnaire and should again go through the processes of validity and
reliability tests.
To gather data from the respondents, the researchers asked for their voluntary
participation in the study by giving a letter of permission and explanation of the purpose
of the study and the respondents had a right to withdraw if they feel uncomfortable. Only
those who acknowledged and were willing to be respondents were given a survey
questionnaire to answer. The anonymity was guaranteed when they participated in the
study to protect their identity. Also, the data gathered from the participants was assured to
remain confidential and should be use for this research only. The researchers personally
administered the research instruments for further clarifications in case the respondents
formulate further questions. Answers of the respondents went through analysis to produce
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accurate results.
Data Analysis
The data that gathered was analyzed quantitatively. The mean of the responses
from the respondents was used to determine the answers to the descriptive question in
item number 1. For the inferential question on the significant difference regarding the
average monthly income of the offline sellers before and after online selling, Shapiro-
Wilk test was used first to test the normality of the responses. The Shapiro-Wilk test was
utilized if a random sample came from a normal distribution. The null hypothesis of the
test was the data that is normally distributed (De Filippi, 2018). To determine if there was
a significant difference between means of two groups, t-test was used when the data is
normal (Kim, 2015). However, if the distribution resulted as skewed, Mann Whitney U-
test or Kolmogorov Smirnov test was used to test whether two samples were likely to
derive from the same population (Boston University, 2017). To be able to arrive at the
accurate results, the following procedures was performed using Statistical Package for
In this portion of the paper, the succeeding parts contain the outcomes of the data
gathered from the respondents through survey questionnaires. There are also discussions,
corroborations, and implications stated that are integrated with other sources for further
Average Monthly Income of Clothing Line Sellers Before and While doing Online
Selling
Table 1 presents the average monthly income of the offline clothing line sellers
Table 1. Average monthly income of clothing line sellers in offline selling and in both offline and
online selling
Groups n Mean Description
Offline Selling 50 1.34 Extremely low income
The average monthly income of clothing line sellers who are only selling in
offline have extremely low income. While clothing line sellers who are selling in both
offline and online have a higher income compared to the previous one. This means that
doing both offline and online is more suggested than doing solely offline selling.
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This finding was supported by Saha (2018) in her study which states that there is
an impact of online selling to retail stores or also called offline sellers. This is due to
increasing trend for online shopping over the internet that leads to an increase on the rate
of online transactions.
continuous growth of this trend, new and more entrants are competing with other online
stores. Thus, old online stores experienced a threat on how to keep their image brand to
the consumers. Then it sometimes leads to close down or tremendous decline in the sales
added in the marketing strategies of the firm. Since the same respondents were asked
about their incomes before and now that they do online selling, it can be inferred that
there is a potentiality to increase their profits. Doing so increases the profitability of the
Test for Significant Difference on the Average Monthly Income of the Offline
Table 2 presents the test for the difference on the average monthly income of
clothing line sellers in offline selling compared to both offline and online selling by the
Table 2. Test for Differences on the Average Monthly Income of Clothing Online Sellers
on Offline Selling and both Offline and Online Selling
Groups n Mean Std. Dev. Sig.
Offline Selling 50 1.34 0.658073875 .0*
Based from the table above, there is a significant difference on the average
monthly income of the offline clothing line sellers before and while doing online selling.
In other words, there is a significance on the average monthly income of the respondents
research, and buy products online nowadays. If the business is not covering this trending
method of selling, they are missing out the opportunity to gain in a highly profitable
business. Furthermore, there is a big difference between selling in both offline and online
rather than offline only. The business with an online store have a wider reach to
consumers because internet is everywhere that makes it easier to reach everyone globally
(Domingo, 2017).
respondents based from the data, the null hypothesis is rejected. Concluding that doing
both online and offline selling is effective and has an impact to the profitability of the
firm rather than selling solely in traditional way or also called as offline selling.
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Conclusions
1. Clothing line businesses have more generated income on both offline and online
2. The engagement of clothing line firms to online selling have an impact to their
3. Online selling is effective to offline clothing line sellers in the central business
Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, the researchers strongly recommend the
following:
1. The offline clothing line businesses should also be encouraged to engage in online
selling because this trending marketing method have an impact to the profitability
2. The researchers should use the findings of this study in their careers as future
3. The marketing subject teachers should teach their students that online selling is a
4. The new entrants to this of should consider this suggested selling strategy to their
business.
5. Sellers of other products other than clothing may take advantage of the benefit of