finance
1.Drugstore.com is , one of the 50 largest online retailers in the U.S offers a variety of products and information on heath, beauty, wellness, personal care and pharmacy products. The mjor different between drugstore.com and the brick and mortar retail drug business is that drugstore.com do not have any ties to a physical location.
2.Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid had similar long histories of internal store growth and store acquisitions. Walgreens Web site was primarily informational. It included three main section: online pharmacy, company information, and a career center. Walgreens established their presence in internet by cooperated with Peapod (the service allowed a customer to order groceries over the internet and have them delivered to the home). Walgreens supplied Peapod’s distribution centers with over-the-counter health and beauty products for inclusion in Peapod’s internet offering. CVS acquired Soma.com, the first online pharmacy, and renamed it CVS.com to become the first fully integrated online and brick-and-mortar pharmacy offering to consumers. Rite Aid established a partnership with drugstore.com in June 1999 allowed customers of Rite Aid to place medical prescription orders online for same-day, in-store pickup.
3.In my own opinions, in whole picture the approaches adopted by Walgreens ,CVS, and Rite Aid more or less are the same. The different is the ways their get involved in internet. Walgreens through strategic alliance, CVS used acquisition and Rite Aid by partnership. It is really hard to say which one is the best approach to establish presence in cyberspace, each one of them also have pro and cons, its depend on to many variable for example the business condition, management style, financial condition and so on. But by referring the exhibit 3 (sep98-jun99), is about the statistics on drugstore website visits, Riteaid is leading other competitors.
4. Barrier to Entry: Medium, Consolidation that is creating large players with deep
2.Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid had similar long histories of internal store growth and store acquisitions. Walgreens Web site was primarily informational. It included three main section: online pharmacy, company information, and a career center. Walgreens established their presence in internet by cooperated with Peapod (the service allowed a customer to order groceries over the internet and have them delivered to the home). Walgreens supplied Peapod’s distribution centers with over-the-counter health and beauty products for inclusion in Peapod’s internet offering. CVS acquired Soma.com, the first online pharmacy, and renamed it CVS.com to become the first fully integrated online and brick-and-mortar pharmacy offering to consumers. Rite Aid established a partnership with drugstore.com in June 1999 allowed customers of Rite Aid to place medical prescription orders online for same-day, in-store pickup.
3.In my own opinions, in whole picture the approaches adopted by Walgreens ,CVS, and Rite Aid more or less are the same. The different is the ways their get involved in internet. Walgreens through strategic alliance, CVS used acquisition and Rite Aid by partnership. It is really hard to say which one is the best approach to establish presence in cyberspace, each one of them also have pro and cons, its depend on to many variable for example the business condition, management style, financial condition and so on. But by referring the exhibit 3 (sep98-jun99), is about the statistics on drugstore website visits, Riteaid is leading other competitors.
4. Barrier to Entry: Medium, Consolidation that is creating large players with deep