How rigid are prices in E-commerce? An analysis of daily price change activity in internet retailing

Mark Bergen, Robert J. Kauffman, Dongwon Lee

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

We explore daily patterns of Internet pricing for the two major Internet retailers, Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, using data on 377 books collected over a 449-day period in 2003-2004. We frame this investigation in terms of a key question: How rigid are prices on the Internet? Internet retailers, in contrast with traditional firms, adjust prices any day of the week throughout the year; firms' price adjustments for books occur less frequently than daily - every 90 days on average; price change activity varies by book category, from a high of one change on average every 61 days for bestsellers to a low of one change every 184 days on average for steadysellers; and, Amazon changes prices less frequently than BN. The former changes book prices every 222 days and the latter every 56 days on average.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Number of pages1
JournalProceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
StatePublished - Nov 10 2005
Event38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - Big Island, HI, United States
Duration: Jan 3 2005Jan 6 2005

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