Conservative estimates indicate that electronic commerce will expand at a rapid pace. Despite thesernprojections, e-commerce firms are faced with a serious challenge: how to acquire and keep customers in arnmarketplace where competitors are a click away. Many e-commerce firms are turning to web-based customerrnrelationship management (CRM) as a way to establish strong customer relationships. However, this type ofrncustomer service is relatively new and not well understood. What options are e-commerce firms using tornprovide customer service?rnThis paper describes preliminary findings of ongoing research investigating the role and importance of trustrnin business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce. The research reported here focuses on the development of anrnempirically grounded framework for web-based CRM. Based on a content analysis of 241 B2C web sites, arnframework is proposed that stratifies web-based CRM on the bases of interactivity and temporality. Thisrnframework helps us differentiate among the range of activities e-commerce firms are using to manage customerrnrelationships online. It paves the way for studies of web-based CRM on both sides of the interface, allowingrnus to investigate such issues as the relative effectiveness of these options, the costs for the firms that implementrnthem, the impacts of these options on the productivity of the firm, the effects of implementation on work flowrnin the firm, and the ways in which consumers make use of these options.
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