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Cvs - Web Strategy

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Running head: CASE ANALYSIS – CVS: THE WEB STRATEGY

Abstract
CVS decided to expand its services by opening a Web -based drugstore. Initially, there were many doubts concerning how to do it “right”; building it from start, or acquisition were the options on hand. After studying the possibilities CVS decided to acquire Soma.com and gradually (less than 3 months) turn it into CVS.com. There were many challenges during the process: coordinating a bicoastal organization (Soma.com headquarters were in Seattle and CVS headquarters were in Rhode Island), determining how the reimbursement were going to be handle for online purchases, building brand awareness and increasing traffi c and sales on the new channel (the Web). This paper …show more content…

independents.




Strong and increasing direct competition

Possibility of being able to have an ‘online

(Drugstore.com, Planet Rx, Walgreens.com

pharmacy’ built within the PBM’s dispensary

and e-pharmacy.com), as well as indirect

(Shah, 1999, p.9).

(healthcare sites without prescription filling such as WebMD, which later became
Healtheon).


Mail-order companies created by PBMs to fill long-term prescriptions created a conflict of interest between suppliers and online drugstores.

CVS had everything figured out for a smooth launching and operation of cvs.com: detailed and careful design purchasing process, differentiated prices, and quality customer service. All these were supported on CVS’ brand equity. However, they forgot to truly integrate both companies not only technol ogically but functionally. Even though it appeared to be the best way to do it, having different marketing teams on different time zones created an issue for the company. That was onl y one of CVS integration issues, another one was that the website database was not synchronized with the stores database, which made the e - mail reminder tool ineffective. It appears to be that the main cause of cvs.com issues was the rush of launching the

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