The Competitiveness of On-Line vis-a-vis Conventional Retailing: A Preliminary Study

2000/07/25 by Ivan Png, Png, Ivan
Computer Science · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #K.4.4 #Other Computer Science (cs.OH) #cs.OH

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cs/0007034

11th NEC Research Symposium

arxiv created 2000/07/25 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30

Abstract

Previous research has directly studied whether on-line retailing is more competitive than conventional retail markets. The evidence from books and music CDs is mixed. Here, I use an indirect approach to compare the competitiveness of on-line with conventional markets. Focusing on the retail market for books, I identify a peculiarity in the pricing of bestsellers relative to other titles. Supposing that competitive barriers are lower in on-line retailing, I analyze how the lower barriers would affect the relative pricing of bestsellers. The empirical data indicates that on-line retailing is more competitive than conventional retailing.

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