Purchase and Post-Purchase

During the Purchase stage, the customer selects the product or service and completes the transaction. This is easy to visualize in terms of putting the product in the shopping cart and proceeding to checkout in order to pay for the item. In on-line environments, this usually involves entering personal details, billing and delivery information, credit card details, and getting a confirmation or receipt in the form of a printable invoice or an email.

The postpurchase stage involves tracking the order and receiving the delivery of products / services. During this stage of the service encounter the customer may need to query an order, complain about the state of the delivery, or question credit-card handling.

Ultimately, the customer will receive his product or service and will review the experience of conducting business with the etailer. During this stage, the customer compares the overall experience with expectations set during the pre-purchase and purchase stages. Matching or exceeding consumer expectations is critical for repeat e-business.