The future od Internet research is the future of online paid surveys.

The penetration through the Internet in the world is constantly growing. In the European Union itself is more than 76%*. More and more people use the Internet on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Internet has become the major toll to collect information.Therefore, the Internet research projects (CAWI – Computer-Assisted Web Interview), DIY (Do It Yourself) software, mobile surveys, big data and IoT (Internet of Things) are the future of marketing research.

The Internet has become a full-fledged communication tool. In the field of marketing research the Internet increasingly replaces phone research (CATI), not to mention the traditional paper research. The Internet allows companies to reduce the cost of research. It also gives a lot of flexibility and the ability to control survey sample. The Internet surveys tend to be more attractive to the respondents as they can be taken at any time and they are usually more interesting. They contain pictures, audio and video clips, links to different web pages, etc. In turn, they seem to be taken my more respondents.

Apart from the above mentioned pros, online research panels have several major advantages, just to name some of them:

  • low cost of the research;
  • possibility of precise sampling;
  • ability to control the research sample;
  • ability to correct the questionnaire during the study;
  • speed of execution of the research, in most cases the researches are completed in 2 – 3 days.

Of course, the online research has also disadvantages. The major drawback is the lack of opportunity for the respondents to provide additional explanations in the course of research or to ask the respondents additional question that will provide more insight into the subject. Also, with the increasing number of online surveys, the response rate may be dropping as the respondents may feel overwhelmed.

* Based on www.internetworldstats.com, December 2014.