Relationship marketing and website value

Consumers are interesting in e-commerce out of many reasons. One is when they can get more value online than offline. How to create and enhance website value is therefore a central question of interest to both the research community and business world. Three areas are most often discussed when value creation online is on the agenda. First, research results show that superior information about existing services and commodities may reduce distribution costs. Second, a better match between what website visitors are looking for and what is offered will increase market efficiency by reducing transaction costs. Third, a reduction in customer compromise will also create value. The number of offerings found online is to a certain degree a guarantee that customers will find what they are looking for. Tourism industry was already in an early stage interest in the market and marketing potential e-commerce generate. It is therefore no surprise that most tour operators have well developed websites. The content, context and infrastructure of these websites are most often of high quality. The research of this area is, despite of its fairly long history and the amount of research efforts put on it, still hobbling. Our ambition in this research project is to study service dimensions tour operators place at website visitors disposal and analyze which dimensions create value. A specific focus is put on relationship dimensions. Online companies need to know what website visitors are looking for. The amount of services found online (on every single website) is today extensive to such an extent that website visitors have difficulties managing them. Web surfers interested in e-commerce are most often very goal oriented. They want a perfect match between information needed and services found. It is of relevance to distinguish between core services, facilitating services, supporting services and complementary services, and then ask which dimensions (found within these service categories) generate online value.