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Buying Online: Sequential Decision Making by Shopbot Visitors

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Author Info
Bernhard Weiss (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria)
Uwe Dulleck () (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria)
Franz Hackl () (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria)
Rudolf Winter-Ebmer () (Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria)

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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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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria in its series Economics working papers with number 2008-10.

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Date of creation: Aug 2008
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Handle: RePEc:jku:econwp:2008_10

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

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

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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. 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)
  5. 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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  6. 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.
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