Buying Online: An Analysis of Shopbot Visitors

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

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages26
JournalGerman Economic Review
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2011

Fields of science

  • 405002 Agricultural economics
  • 502 Economics
  • 502001 Labour market policy
  • 502002 Labour economics
  • 502003 Foreign trade
  • 502009 Corporate finance
  • 502010 Public finance
  • 502012 Industrial management
  • 502013 Industrial economics
  • 502018 Macroeconomics
  • 502020 Market research
  • 502021 Microeconomics
  • 502025 Econometrics
  • 502027 Political economy
  • 502039 Structural policy
  • 502042 Environmental economics
  • 502046 Economic policy
  • 502047 Economic theory
  • 504014 Gender studies
  • 506004 European integration
  • 507016 Regional economy
  • 303010 Health economics

JKU Focus areas

  • Social Systems, Markets and Welfare States
  • Social and Economic Sciences (in general)

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