Proactive Customer Relationship Management In E-Commerce

Abstract

By addressing customers individually and taking over selected tasks, push concepts allow suppliers to play a more active role in e-commerce and to improve their customer relationship management (CRM). An overview on nature, concepts and technical implementations of push concepts is given. The main characteristics of CRM and opportunities offered by concepts of mass customization are described. Special attention is paid to push concepts on relationship level, as this is particularly relevant for CRM. Different approaches to predict future needs of the customer and to derive individual offers are introduced. In the proposed concept, actively addressing customers leads to differentiation strategies at moderate costs. The advantages of integrating push concepts into CRM are summarized and classified in a final conclusion.