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Buying Online: An Analysis of Shopbot Visitors

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  • Uwe Dulleck
  • Franz Hackl
  • Bernhard Weiss
  • Rudolf Winter‐Ebmer

Abstract

We conduct an empirical study on the search and purchasing behavior of buyers on an Austrian price comparison site. On such a market a consumer typically searches for the cheapest price of a given product. Reliability and service of the supplier, however, are other important characteristics of an offer. We find robust evidence of consumer behavior that can be described as a two-stage procedure: shoppers first select a group of candidate offers based on the price only; then, in the actual buying decision consumers tradeoff a lower price with higher reliability of the retailer.
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Suggested Citation

  • Uwe Dulleck & Franz Hackl & Bernhard Weiss & Rudolf Winter‐Ebmer, 2011. "Buying Online: An Analysis of Shopbot Visitors," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 12(4), pages 395-408, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:germec:v:12:y:2011:i:4:p:395-408
    DOI: j.1468-0475.2011.00535.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Böheim, René & Hackl, Franz & Hölzl-Leitner, Michael, 2021. "The impact of price adjustment costs on price dispersion in e-commerce," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Juan Lleras & Yusufcan Masatlioglu & Daisuke Nakajima & Erkut Ozbay, 2021. "Path-Independent Consideration," Games, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, March.
    3. Hackl, Franz & Kummer, Michael E. & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf & Zulehner, Christine, 2014. "Market structure and market performance in E-commerce," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 199-218.
    4. Franz Hackl & Michael Hölzl‐Leitner & Rudolf Winter‐Ebmer & Christine Zulehner, 2021. "Successful retailer strategies in price comparison platforms," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(5), pages 1284-1305, July.
    5. Stephen McDonald & Colin Wren, 2018. "Multibrand pricing as a strategy for consumer search obfuscation in online markets," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 171-187, June.
    6. Hackl, Franz & Kummer, Michael E. & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2014. "99 Cent: Price points in e-commerce," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 12-27.
    7. Hackl, Franz & Kügler, Agnes & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2011. "Reputation and Certification in Online Shops," Economics Series 279, Institute for Advanced Studies.
    8. Franz Hackl & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2020. "Customer reactions to a webshop’s service quality," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 47(4), pages 699-731, November.
    9. Rohan Dutta & Sean Horan, 2015. "Inferring Rationales from Choice: Identification for Rational Shortlist Methods," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 179-201, November.
    10. Artur Strzelecki, 2019. "Key Features of E-Tailer Shops in Adaptation to Cross-Border E-Commerce in the EU," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-13, March.
    11. Franz Hackl & Michael Hölzl-Leitner & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer & Christine Zulehner, 2018. "Success of firm strategies in e-commerce," Economics working papers 2018-10, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    12. Bleile, Jörg, 2016. "Limited Attention in Case-Based Belief Formation," Center for Mathematical Economics Working Papers 518, Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University.

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