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Retailers’ product location problem with consumer search
Quantitative Marketing and Economics ( IF 1.3 ) Pub Date : 2019-09-12 , DOI: 10.1007/s11129-019-09214-6
Raluca M. Ursu , Daria Dzyabura

With few exceptions, today’s retailers sell products across multiple categories. One strategic consideration of such retailers is product location, which determines how easy or difficult different categories are for customers to access. For example, grocery or department stores determine which products will be located closer to the entrance of the store versus at the back of it, while online retailers decide which products to feature on the homepage, and which will require scrolling or keyword search to get to. In this paper, we study how a retailer should optimally locate products within a store, when the locations chosen affect consumer search costs. We show that the retailer has an incentive to prioritize products with lower utility, contrasting with prior work. The intuition for our result is that the consumer may be willing to search less preferred products only at the lower cost, while the more preferred products will be searched even at higher search costs. This strategy benefits the retailer by increasing the number of products the consumer searches and thus, the ones she may buy. Our finding is robust to several extensions: (i) a retailer determining not only product locations, but also prices, (ii) independent (e.g. categories), as well as substitute products, and (iii) a focal retailer that faces competition. From a managerial perspective, we show that allocating products in the store without taking into account how this affects consumer search costs, might mean consumers overlook products they would otherwise purchase.

中文翻译:

零售商与消费者搜索有关的产品位置问题

几乎没有例外,当今的零售商销售多种类别的产品。这种零售商的战略考虑之一是产品的位置,它决定了客户访问不同类别的难易程度。例如,杂货店或百货公司确定哪些产品将更靠近商店的入口而不是在商店的后面,而在线零售商则确定哪些产品将显示在主页上,哪些将需要滚动或关键字搜索才能到达。在本文中,我们研究了当所选位置影响消费者搜索成本时,零售商应如何在商店内最佳定位产品。我们显示,与先前的工作相比,零售商有动机优先考虑实用性较低的产品。我们的结果直觉是,消费者可能只愿意以较低的成本搜索不太喜欢的产品,而即使是更高的搜索成本也要搜索更喜欢的产品。通过增加消费者搜索的产品数量,从而增加零售商可以购买的产品数量,该策略使零售商受益。我们的发现对以下几种扩展是可靠的:(i)零售商不仅确定产品位置,而且还确定价格;(ii)独立的(例如类别)以及替代产品;以及(iii)面临竞争的重点零售商。从管理的角度来看,我们表明在商店中分配产品而不考虑这会如何影响消费者搜索成本,这可能意味着消费者会忽略他们原本会购买的产品。而更昂贵的产品也会被搜索到。通过增加消费者搜索的产品数量,从而增加零售商可以购买的产品数量,该策略使零售商受益。我们的发现对以下几种扩展是可靠的:(i)零售商不仅确定产品位置,而且还确定价格;(ii)独立的(例如类别)以及替代产品;以及(iii)面临竞争的重点零售商。从管理的角度来看,我们表明在商店中分配产品而不考虑这会如何影响消费者搜索成本,这可能意味着消费者会忽略他们原本会购买的产品。而更昂贵的产品也会被搜索到。通过增加消费者搜索的产品数量,从而增加零售商可以购买的产品数量,该策略使零售商受益。我们的发现对以下几种扩展是可靠的:(i)零售商不仅确定产品位置,而且还确定价格;(ii)独立的(例如类别)以及替代产品;以及(iii)面临竞争的重点零售商。从管理的角度来看,我们表明在商店中分配产品而不考虑这会如何影响消费者搜索成本,这可能意味着消费者会忽略他们原本会购买的产品。我们的发现对以下几种扩展是可靠的:(i)零售商不仅确定产品位置,而且还确定价格;(ii)独立的(例如类别)以及替代产品;以及(iii)面临竞争的重点零售商。从管理的角度来看,我们表明在商店中分配产品而不考虑这会如何影响消费者搜索成本,这可能意味着消费者会忽略他们原本会购买的产品。我们的发现对以下几种扩展是可靠的:(i)零售商不仅确定产品位置,而且还确定价格;(ii)独立的(例如类别)以及替代产品;以及(iii)面临竞争的重点零售商。从管理的角度来看,我们表明在商店中分配产品而不考虑这会如何影响消费者搜索成本,这可能意味着消费者会忽略他们原本会购买的产品。
更新日期:2019-09-12
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