The state of electronic customer relationship management in retailing

Abstract

This paper analyzes the availability of electronic customer relationship management (E‐CRM) features on retail Web sites and their relationship to consumer satisfaction and site traffic. The top 100 specialty store, standard retail store, and Internet retailer Web sites were analyzed for the presence of 41 E‐CRM features. The availability of these features was then assessed for their relationship with consumer traffic to the site and customer satisfaction with the site. Internet retailers were significantly more likely to have E‐CRM attributes on their site. However only the chat feature, spare parts availability, gift certificate purchase, mailing address, search engine, links, and a company profile were associated with customer satisfaction. No E‐CRM feature was associated with customer traffic to a site. Standard retailers appear to be behind in implementing E‐CRM features in current operations. It is not clear that retailers understand what aspects of E‐CRM will be important in customer satisfaction.

Citation

Feinberg, R.A., Kadam, R., Hokama, L. and Kim, I. (2002), "The state of electronic customer relationship management in retailing", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 30 No. 10, pp. 470-481. https://doi.org/10.1108/09590550210445344