Abstract
Over many years, technological developments have enabled financial services products to be sold and administered via remote distribution channels. E-business is the latest channel whose potential is being explored by both traditional financial services players and new entrants alike. But, in their haste to ‘go online’, are organisations, new and old, falling into the ‘technology trap’ and ignoring the fundamentals underpinning financial services retailing and, perhaps, undermining some of their ‘segment-of-one’ strategies? This paper concludes that the key to successful e-financial services retailing is to take the nuances, attributes, techniques and skills that have accompanied financial services products in the physical world and reinvent them in an e-environment. Only by following this approach will e-business avoid being labelled as a solution looking for a problem. UK high street banks are continuing to extend the choice of channel through which customers can manage their money, eg e-banking. But it is suggested that channels such as e-banking potentially reduce the level of personal contact between bank and customer to the extent that a ‘virtual’ relationship develops. This paper concludes that, given the tendency towards ‘virtualisation’, it is inconceivable that bank–customer relationships will become any more intimate in the future. Indeed, a greater degree of personalisation in customer communication may be the very best that banks are able to offer.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Boyes, G., Stone, M. E-business opportunities in financial services. J Financ Serv Mark 8, 176–189 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.fsm.4770117
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.fsm.4770117
Keywords
- banking
- customer relations
- e-business
- e-commerce
- financial brokers
- financial engineering
- financial institutions
- financial marketing
- financial models
- financial planning
- financial training
- insurance
- intermediation
- knowledge management
- management
- marketing
- marketing strategy
- pensions
- services quality
- virtual organisations
- retailing
- product classifications
- channel
- risk
- regulation
- branches