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Top1. Introduction
Building strong online customer relationships is widely seen as a strategy that online retailers could implement in order to secure the future growth of the online retailing trade (Kozlenkova Palmatier, Fang, Xiao, & Huang, 2017; Verma, Sharma, & Sheth, 2016). Indeed, the literature has robustly and consistently linked building strong customer relationships to a number of business outcomes, including increased revenue, customer loyalty, price inelasticity, word-of-mouth referrals, lower acquisition costs, upselling, and cross-selling (Guerola-Navarro, Gil-Gomez, Oltra-Badenes, & Sendra-García, 2021; Rodriguez & Boyer, 2020). However, research suggests that online retailers find it increasingly challenging to foster relationships with customers (Verma et al., 2016). To improve this, online retailers are making significant investments in developing long-term relationships through the provision of additional benefits beyond the core product to their customers. These benefits that customers receive from firms through their sustained relationship are called ‘relational benefits’ (Gremler, Van Vaerenbergh, Brűggen, & Gwinner, 2020). Gwinner, Gremler, and Bitner (1998) specifically define relational benefits as the kinds of benefit that customers receive over and above the performance of the core service. Relational benefits thus accrue from long-term cooperation between a firm and its customers, and extend beyond the core benefits (such as products and service quality) that customers receive from the firm (Su, Li, & Cui, 2009).
Prior research has shown that relational benefits are important to firms owing to their role in fostering commitment, boosting loyalty intention, and increasing word-of-mouth referrals (Gremler et al., 2020; Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, & Gremler, 2002; Lee, Choi, Kim, & Hyun, 2014). This logic holds true for online retailers too, with the provision of relational benefits enabling them to strengthen their existing customer relationships and to improve their ability to convert first-time buyers into committed and loyal customers. Relational benefits fall under the rubric of relationship marketing more generally, which denotes the act of “attracting, maintaining and enhancing customer relationships” (Berry, 1983). The raison d’être of relationship marketing is to foster enduring relationships with customers by delivering long-term value for them, with the aim of retaining them over the long-term (Grönroos, 1994). Relational marketing suggests that, to meet the long-term value needs of customers, firms must offer more resources and activities than just their core product/s (Grönroos, 1997). Previous research has shown that, beyond the core benefits offered to consumers, certain economic, psychological, social, and individual benefits inspire customers to develop and maintain long-term relationships with retailers (Berry, 1995; Bitner, 1995; Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman, 1996). Grounded in these studies, Gwinner et al. (1998) proposed and empirically examined a framework for relational marketing. These authors posited that, in the long term, customers obtain three forms of benefit beyond a core product or service offering: confidence benefits, special treatment benefits, and social benefits.