Walgreen updates Web features to boost sales

Walgreen Co is adding live chats with pharmacists and other features to its website to get shoppers to spend more time and money online and in its drugstores.

While Walgreen has had a website since 1998, some of its services were behind the times when Sona Chawla joined as the chain's first senior vice president of e-commerce in 2008.

Upgrades, such as express refills and an iPhone application, have been added this year and more are planned.

"The goal is really to help the customer stay within the walls of Walgreens," Chawla said during an interview at the company's Deerfield, Illinois headquarters.

Walgreen's online sales have grown in a high double-digit range for a few years and the company hopes to increase that growth rate, Chawla said. Overall, Walgreen's sales typically rise in a single-digit range.

E-commerce now has its own division at Walgreen. Chawla's team started a Facebook page and has been sending tweets on the Twitter social networking site to update Walgreen's online image. A recent offer for a free photo book on Facebook got a "great" response, she said.

The online push comes as Walgreen pushes to promote itself, including in new national television commercials. Under Greg Wasson, who became chief executive in February, the company is trying to become more focused what shoppers want and is speaking more publicly about issues such as healthcare reform.

Meanwhile, it faces stepped up competition from retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which has started selling health and beauty products online with 97 cent shipping. Meanwhile, smaller sites such as drugstore.com inc and Alice.com sell basic toiletries and household goods that shoppers usually stop at drugstores for, with free shipping.

"Online, everyone is a competitor," Chawla said.

While the company is focused on health and wellness, it is also making a bigger push online in general merchandise. Walgreen.com launched its first holiday shop this month with daily deals and products such as one of Chawla's favorite quirky items — an elf costume for pets. The USD 16.99 costume is only being sold on the site, not in stores.

Shoppers with iPhones can now send photos saved on their cellphones to stores for printing, refill prescriptions and find stores and Take Care clinics with a GPS-based locater .

Online shoppers can also check if items are in stock in their local stores.

Walgreen is also promoting certain vendors online. L'Oreal SA has its own a page with beauty tips, while Novartis AG's Prevacid has a page with details on heartburn.

"We're going to be doing this with a select number of others," Chawla said, declining to name future additions.

A pilot, launched earlier this week, lets consumers chat online with pharmacists. Previously, consumers could email their questions to pharmacists through the site.

About 30 percent of the items Walgreen sells online, such as some medical equipment, are not sold in its more than 7,000 drugstores. That percentage should grow as Walgreen adds vitamins, over-the-counter medications, beauty, skin care and personal care items and other products to the site.

Traffic on Walgreens.com jumped more than 30% in fiscal 2009, according to Chawla. Walgreens is the top drugstore website according to data the company provided from Compete.com.