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Buying Online: Sequential Decision Making by Shopbot Visitors

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Author Info
Dulleck, Uwe
Hackl, Franz
Weiss, Bernhard
Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf

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Abstract

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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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 6939.

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Date of creation: Aug 2008
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6939

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Related research
Keywords: decision theory; e-commerce; heuristics; price comparison; seller reputation;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search, Learning, and Information
L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Betancourt, Roger R. & Gautschi, David, 1993. "Two essential characteristics of retail markets and their economic consequences," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 277-294, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Smith, Michael D & Brynjolfsson, Erik, 2001. "Consumer Decision-Making at an Internet Shopbot: Brand Still Matters," Journal of Industrial Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(4), pages 541-58, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Paola Manzini & Marco Mariotti, 2007. "Sequentially Rationalizable Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1824-1839, December. [Downloadable!]
  4. Michael Smith & Erik Brynjolfsson, 1999. "Frictionless Commerce? A Comparison of Internet and Conventional Retailers," Computing in Economics and Finance 1999 1022, Society for Computational Economics.
  5. Eliaz, Kfir & Ok, Efe A., 2006. "Indifference or indecisiveness? Choice-theoretic foundations of incomplete preferences," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 61-86, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Mandler, Michael & Manzini, Paola & Mariotti, Marco, 2008. "A Million Answers to Twenty Questions: Choosing by Checklist," IZA Discussion Papers 3377, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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