Case Study L. L. Bean 1. What do you think are some of the customer loyalty issues that L. L Bean managers face as they grow online sales? I think that a customer loyalty concern that L. L. Bean managers may be faced with while growing their online store presence may include competition from the multitudes of other retail stores operating with their own online presence.
Customers may be inclined to browse around several websites looking for better prices, something which may not be as easy to do for consumers when catalog browsing or shopping in a physical store. To remedy this potential threat L. L. Bean must continue to build brand loyalty amongst its customers. 2. How can L. L. Bean best pursue a multi-channel retailing strategy? Is the current management making the right judgment about developing online capabilities slowly over a long period of time? L. L.
Bean’s multi-channel retailing strategy has proven to be effective thus far because its strategy has each of its three retailing entities working complementary to one another rather than in competition with one another for customer orders. The management of L. L. Bean is wise in deciding to take a more cautionary approach in developing its online capabilities at a slow pace over time. The reason for this being that the Internet is a relatively new medium to retail through and they must completely understand how this channel will affect their catalog sales. . Critics argue that L. L. Bean should be expanding its total retail operations including stores at a much faster rate in order to meet the competition. Do you agree? Why or why not? I agree, but I think in order for L. L. Bean to effectively utilize its complementary three channel retailing strategy, it must not neglect to adequately expand its physical store presence, both domestically and internationally.
