Shopping Cost and Brand Exploration in Online Grocery

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Pozzi, Andrea
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MICROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7669
• DOI: 10.1257/mic.4.3.96
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 96-120
• 关键词: switching costs; Consumer choice; price; internet; search; offline; Loyalty; distributions; uncertainty; COMPETITION

摘要

This paper compares consumers' brand exploration when shopping online versus in a brick-and-mortar store. I use a new scanner dataset to compare the behavior of households shopping online and in-store at the same chain, for identical items and prices. I find that brand exploration is more prevalent in-store. My model quantifies the role of features of e-commerce, like the existence of favorites lists and the difficulty in verifying item quality. Limited exploration online implies higher barriers to entry on the Internet channel. Counterfactual exercises suggest that online advertising could make the Internet channel more competitive. (JEL D12, L11, L81, M31, M37)