An Empirical Analysis of Sales Spillover Effects of Online Product Sampling on E-commerce Platforms
COM2 Level 4
Executive Classroom, COM2-04-02
EXAMINERS:
1.Dr Chen Yuanyuan
2.Dr Huang Ke Wei
ABSTRACT:
Despite the increasing popularity of online product sampling among retailers and customers, empirical research investigating its impact on product sales still lags. We attempt to answer: (1) How and to what extent does sampling a product affect the sales of other products in an online store (i.e., in-store spillover effects)? (2) How and to what extent does sampling a product affect the sales of the same product in other stores on the same e-commerce platform (i.e., cross-store spillover effects)? (3) How do the in-store and cross-store sales spillover effects differ during and after the online product sampling campaigns (i.e., in-sampling vs. post-sampling effects)? (4) How do the in-store and cross-store sales spillover effects vary across different product types (i.e., experience, credence and search products)? Using data from the largest e-commerce product sampling platform in China, we intend to uncover various spillover effects of online product sampling. We also propose several identification strategies to resolve potential endogeneity issues with our study. By addressing the above four research questions, we expect that our findings will provide important theoretical contributions to the product sampling literature and critical implications for online retailers.