When you visit a store, the atmosphere, colors, lighting, parking lot, sales staff, store layout, displays, etc. all have an impact on building the customer relationship. When you visit an e-commerce site all that is available to help build the relationship is the website. What the site looks like, and what the customer has access to will help or hinder in the relationship building.

This week for your discussion, you will explore how e-commerce sites build customer relationships differently than a store with a physical presence.

• What are some of the advantages of physical stores in building customer relationships? Reflect on a time when you had a great experience and when you had a poor experience. What happened that impacted your perception?
• What are some of the advantages that e-commerce sites have in building customer relationships? Think about a well-designed site and a poorly designed site. What are some of the things that impacted your perception?