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A Comparison of Bundling and Sequential Pricing in Competitive Markets: Experimental Evidence

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  • John Aloysius
  • Cary Deck
  • Amy Farmer

Abstract

Technological advances enable sellers to identify relationships among offered goods. Sellers can leverage this information through pricing strategies such as bundling and sequential pricing. While these strategies have primarily been studied under monopoly assumptions, the strategies are available to competitive firms as well. This paper reports on a series of laboratory experiments comparing bundling and sequential pricing while varying the underlying relationship between the goods in markets where a fraction of buyers comparison shop. The results indicate that sequential pricing is generally as profitable to the seller; however, there is evidence that sequential pricing may be more harmful to consumers than bundling when the goods have complementary values or the buyer’s values are positively correlated.

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  • John Aloysius & Cary Deck & Amy Farmer, 2012. "A Comparison of Bundling and Sequential Pricing in Competitive Markets: Experimental Evidence," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 25-51, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:19:y:2012:i:1:p:25-51
    DOI: 10.1080/13571516.2012.642637
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    Cited by:

    1. Brokesova, Zuzana & Deck, Cary & Peliova, Jana, 2014. "Experimenting with purchase history based price discrimination," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 229-237.
    2. Deck, Cary & Gu, Jingping, 2012. "Price increasing competition? Experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 730-740.
    3. Amit Gayer & Avishay Aiche & Eli Gimmon, 2022. "Online sequential bundling: profit analysis and practice," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1351-1375, December.
    4. John Aloysius & Cary Deck & Amy Farmer, 2013. "Sequential Pricing of Multiple Products: Leveraging Revealed Preferences of Retail Customers Online and with Auto-ID Technologies," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 372-393, June.

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