Buying online: Sequential decision making by shopbot visitors

Arbeitspapier

In this article we propose a two stage procedure to model demand decisions by customers who are balancing several dimensions of a product. We then test our procedure by analyzing the behavior of buyers from an Austrian price comparison site. Although in such a market a consumer will typically search for the cheapest price for a given product, reliability and service of the supplier are other important characteristics of a retailer. In our data, consumers follow such a two stage procedure: they select a shortlist of suppliers by using the price variable only; finally, they trade off reliability and price among these shortlisted suppliers.

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• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Reihe Ökonomie / Economics Series ; No. 225

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce ; Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
• Subject: e-commerce ; price comparison ; decision theory ; heuristics ; seller reputation ; Online-Handel ; Internetportal ; Preis ; Informationsversorgung ; Konsumentenverhalten ; Entscheidungstheorie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Dulleck, Uwe ; Hackl, Franz ; Weiss, Bernhard ; Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS)
• (where): Vienna
• (when): 2008

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/72687