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Successful retailer strategies in price comparison platforms

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  • Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf
  • Hackl, Franz
  • Hoelzl-Leitner, Michael
  • Zulehner, Christine

Abstract

The choice of an appropriate e-commerce strategy for the listing in price comparison platforms (eBay, Amazon, price search engines) is crucial for the survival of online stores in B2C e-commerce business. We use a comprehensive data set from the Austrian price search engine geizhals.at to identify successful e-commerce strategies with regard to these listing decisions. An e-commerce strategy is a set of choices including listing, availability, and decisions on the price path and shipping cost. We apply cluster analysis to identify the different strategies that have been used by online retailers. Using various success measures such as revenue, clicks, market share, and the survival of firms we present causal evidence on the effectiveness of different e-commerce strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf & Hackl, Franz & Hoelzl-Leitner, Michael & Zulehner, Christine, 2020. "Successful retailer strategies in price comparison platforms," CEPR Discussion Papers 14308, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14308
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    1. Gilles Pache, 2022. "The Impact Of Logistics On Product Assortment Policy: An Illustration With Q-Commerce," Post-Print hal-04020665, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    E-commerce; Online trade; Business strategies; Retailing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
    • L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General

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