Customer Relationship Management and E-Commerce Strategies - Essay Example

? Relationship Management and E-Commerce Strategies Table of Contents I. 3 II. Main Findings 3 III. Comments 6 IV. Conclusion 6 References 7 I. Abstract The paper explores the key activities related to managing relationships with customers at Starbucks’ and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ websites, with an eye to understanding how information technology supports those activities. The paper also explores what the e-commerce applications and CRM strategies are in the websites of the two coffee companies. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is listed on the NASDAQ, and has its headquarters in Waterbury, Vermont. Starbucks, meanwhile, is the global coffee and beverages company that is likewise listed as a public company. The findings are that in general both websites serves as customer interaction platforms that are also transactional, and serve up products that customers can purchase, and which the backend systems process. The backend systems, apart from processing transactions, also allow for the creation of customer accounts, from where the platform is able to better manage customer experiences and interactions, by remembering customer purchases and transaction histories. (Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., 2004; Starbucks Corporation, 2013). II. Main Findings At the Starbucks site there are many activities geared towards managing relationships with customers. At the very basic, the website offers visitors the opportunity to be part of the mailing list for its newsletter. The very concept of the webpage itself is a big relationship management and transactional portal, where customers are able to buy extras and gifts, such as ornamental pieces for the holidays, coffee cups, and pouches of coffee to be brewed at home. The items are prominently displayed at the center of the pages like in a catalog, with prices, and clicking on the product images brings the customer to a page where the customer can place the order in a bag, for later payment. The site then through this particular gifts page is an interactive way for the company to engage customers and to allow for transactions. Taking a step back, putting the original www.starbucks.com on the URL bar redirects the customer to the Starbucks Store. In this way the online visitor to Starbucks is engaged in the same way as Starbucks would engage customers in their stores. The virtual presence is also configured as a store (Starbucks Corporation, 2013b). In fact, taking a step back, each of the categories in the Starbucks online store, from tea to coffee to equipment, drinkware and the Starbucks Card categories, lead to pages that sell merchandise. The entire site can be construed as a customer relationship platform, and behind it is an accounts management system where customers can create accounts to facilitate the building and the maintenance of the customer relationships online. The latter includes understanding purchase patterns, purchase histories, and generally archiving customer transactions to potentially improve the customer engagement process moving forward. At the back too it can be construed that IT is a vital aspect of the entire experience. The CRM front end as described above must have at the back of it a support infrastructure that includes orders processing and fulfillment, and a backend to track all transactions and manage specific customer relationships through the maintenance of databases of customer interactions (Starbucks Corporation, 2013). In contrast the Green Mountain Coffee website is less forward with its products, having no catalog at the home page for instance, in the way that the Starbucks site pushes its products with pricing and orders fulfillment all in front when the visitor visits the site. Moreover, where Starbucks automatically redirects visitors to starbucks.com directly to its online store, Green Mountain Coffee’s home page is a general page about the company, with key products displayed out in front, but no pricing and related orders fulfillment options present. That said, the Green Mountain Coffee site likewise engages customers in various ways, and in ways similar to the Starbucks store. In the various options available on the front page, the links lead to pages that contain product catalogs that are also clickable, and which likewise have price tags, and cart system similar to Starbucks where customers can place items in a virtual cart for later processing and payment. The categories of products are extensive, and include equipment, coffee products, and gifts as well as accessories in the same manner as Starbucks. Again, one can see the entire site as constituting a customer engagement platform. The cart system exists within the framework of a customer management system where customers can create accounts. At the back, IT supports the entire customer interaction process with a backend system to process transactions, track histories, and improve customer interactions and experiences (Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., 2004). The websites offer a unified set of platforms for managing the customer relationship. They can be construed as the front-end interfaces to comprehensive CRM platform that enables the companies, especially in the case of Starbucks, to recreate the store experience and to benefit from the digital experience by being able to cull and retain histories of transactions and customer purchase histories and preferences (Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., 2004; Starbucks Corporation, 2013; Starbucks Corporation, 2013b). III. Comments The idea of extending the physical store and recreating the physical store experience in Starbucks is no doubt a good way to unify the customer experience and also to recreate and extend the great customer relationship paradigm in the store to the online presence. If customer relationship management is good in the stores, then customers can project that same experience to the online presence. IT plays a large part here, because the strength of the backend allows for a great customer experience. If the backend systems are good, then Starbucks can customize the interactions better. Moreover, by making products available at the websites, the two companies are able to leverage their websites/customer relationship platforms to drive revenues too (Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., 2004; Starbucks Corporation, 2013; Starbucks Corporation, 2013b). IV. Conclusion The two websites are in effect large customer relationship platforms that, with the help and support of IT backend systems to process interactions and to remember and manage interactions, can serve to extend the avenues where the companies can reach customers and further increase revenues and customer loyalty (Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., 2004; Starbucks Corporation, 2013; Starbucks Corporation, 2013b). References Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (2004). Green Mountain Coffee. GMCR. Retrieved from http://www.greenmountaincoffee.com/ Starbucks Corporation (2013). Homepage. Starbucks Store. Retrieved from http://www.starbucksstore.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Starbucks-Site/default/Default-Start?cm_mmc=Sbuxcom-_-HP-_-CMRedirect-_-HolidayFY14 Starbucks Corporation (2013b). Gifts & Extras Category. Starbucks Store Retrieved from http://www.starbucksstore.com/Stocking-Stuffers/stocking-stuffer-ideas,default,sc.html?cm_sp=HPA1US-_-stocking_stuffer-_-112513 Read More