Document Type

Article

Abstract

Through their use of comparison shopping websites, online shoppers encounter tradeoffs between a product’s various prices along with the reputations of the various online retailers. As a first step in understanding the impact of comparison shopping websites on consumer buying behavior, we performed a set of exploratory experiments that systematically discover how online shoppers make decisions when faced with different combinations of price and reputations in their comparison-shopping. We found online shoppers are generally seeking a balanced combination of price and reputation. If a balanced solution cannot be found, then they prefer merchants with better reputation but not the premium price. The strategic implications to B2C ecommerce are discussed.

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