The Value of Pop-Up Stores on Retailing Platforms: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Alibaba

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Zhang, Dennis J.; Dai, Hengchen; Dong, Lingxiu; Wu, Qian; Guo, Lifan; Liu, Xiaofei
• 署名单位: Washington University (WUSTL); University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; Alibaba Group
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2019.3410
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 5142-5151
• 关键词: platform operations; Randomized field experiment; pop-up stores; Internet of Things; Omnichannel Retailing

摘要

We study the value of short-lived and experientially oriented pop-up stores, a popular type of omnichannel retail strategy, on both retailers that participate in pop-up store events and retailing platforms that host these retailers. We conduct a large-scale, randomized field experiment with Alibaba Group involving approximately 800,000 customers. We randomly assign customers to either receive a message about an upcoming weeklong pop-up store event organized by Alibaba's business-to-consumer platform (Tmall.com) or not receive any message about the event. We find that our message increased foot traffic to the pop-up store and in turn boosted expenditure at participating retailers' online stores at Tmall after the event ended. Furthermore, we use advanced Wi-Fi technology to track customers' visits to the pop-up store a missing component from past research that commonly relies on point-of-sale data. We find that pop-up store visits substantially increased customers' subsequent expenditure at participating retailers Tmall stores. In addition, from a platform perspective we show that pop-up store visits increased customers' purchases at retailers that sell related products on Tmall but did not participate in the pop-up store event. Additional analyses shed light on possible mechanisms underlying the cross-channel and spillover effects of pop-up stores and demonstrate that these effects were concentrated on prospective consumers.