Paper Number
1207
Paper Type
Completed
Description
Consumers on mobile retail apps face significant search costs due to the small screen size of devices. One of the search aid features to improve the search convenience is to show consumers a small set of frequently used searches conducted by peer consumers on the platform as a prime cue. We refer to this feature as the popular ranking search aid (PRSA). Collaborating with Meituan, a leading services mobile app in China, we implement a large-scale field experiment to explore how PRSA affects consumer search activities and purchases. Our analyses generate three key findings. First, PRSA leads to an increase of 18.6% in page views and a 6.4% increase in purchases. Second, the change in shopping behavior emerges through a change in search behavior with more non-directed searches and fewer directed searches. Third, our mediation analysis supports that search behavior mediates the business outcomes. We offer theoretical and managerial implications.
Recommended Citation
Zheng, Shuang; Tong, Jack; Fang, Sihan; Gopal, Anand; Li, Xianneng; and Jiang, Qiancheng, "Peer Priming? A Large-Scale Field Experiment Studying the Impact of Popular Rankings on Demand in Mobile Retail" (2023). ICIS 2023 Proceedings. 6.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2023/emobilecomm/emobilecomm/6
Peer Priming? A Large-Scale Field Experiment Studying the Impact of Popular Rankings on Demand in Mobile Retail
Consumers on mobile retail apps face significant search costs due to the small screen size of devices. One of the search aid features to improve the search convenience is to show consumers a small set of frequently used searches conducted by peer consumers on the platform as a prime cue. We refer to this feature as the popular ranking search aid (PRSA). Collaborating with Meituan, a leading services mobile app in China, we implement a large-scale field experiment to explore how PRSA affects consumer search activities and purchases. Our analyses generate three key findings. First, PRSA leads to an increase of 18.6% in page views and a 6.4% increase in purchases. Second, the change in shopping behavior emerges through a change in search behavior with more non-directed searches and fewer directed searches. Third, our mediation analysis supports that search behavior mediates the business outcomes. We offer theoretical and managerial implications.
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22-Digital