Walgreens first stepped into e-commerce over a decade ago when it started walgreens.com, which recently ranked as one of the top retail sites on the Web with an estimated 12 million visits each week to the site. The company’s mobile shopping app allows consumers to track medication schedules, receive reminders, and order refills by scanning the barcode on prescription bottles with their smartphones. The company says more than 40 percent of Walgreens’ online prescription refills come from mobile devices.

When consumers switched to digital cameras, many retailers got out of the one-hour photo-processing business. Not Walgreens. With its QuickPrint function, the mobile app allows customers to take photos on their smartphones, find a local Walgreens, send images to the store for printing, and pick up the prints typically within an hour. The company believes the photo option provides additional revenues because so many pictures “live” on people’s smartphones. Walgreens also has agreements with several mobile photo-sharing companies to allow their subscribers to “print to Walgreens.”  

Walgreens learned that customers who are reached through multiple channels are three times as valuable to the company’s bottom line as those customers reached through only one channel. With more than 8,200 stores in the United States and twothirds of the population living within three miles of a store location, Walgreens believes its multifaceted approach will continue to appeal to consumers of all ages. The company recently announced the creation of a new digital division that combines e-commerce, corporate marketing, and customer loyalty and insights. 

Questions

1. According to a recent Nielsen survey, there has been a significant increase in the number of consumers 65 years and older using smartphones. How can Walgreens take advantage of this demographic as the company expands its online retail presence? 

2. Walgreens took a majority stake in Alliance Boots, a European pharmacy retailer, for more than $6 billion. What effects will this partnership have on the company’s e-commerce strategies?