Consulting Services - an Important Part of Providing Customer Value in E-commerce with Pharmaceutical Products: Customer Perspective

摘要

The increasing intensity of the competitive environment in e-commerce makes it necessary to develop in addition to the traditional elements of the offer, i.e. transactional benefits such as a brief presentation of products, prices and methods of delivery and payment for the goods ordered, also many intangible benefits for clients, leading to customer retention and enhancing their loyalty to a particular e-shop, i.e. relational benefits. A significant intangible benefit to the customers to be provided under various e-commerce products is consulting. The article summarizes current views on the forms of intangible benefits as part of customer value, including interactions with customers and consulting. Then it presents a part of the results of a quantitative research among clients of online pharmacies, selected by a simple random selection. These are the conclusions concerning the attitudes of clients to various forms of consulting and their requirements for the content of this consulting. The research has confirmed the hypothesis that for obtaining, maintaining and increasing loyalty of customers of online pharmacies the relational benefits (consulting) are at least as important as transactional benefits.