To buy or not to buy? Price salience in an online shopping field experiment

Markus Dertwinkel-Kalt (markus.dertwinkel-kalt@wiwi.uni-muenster.de), Mats Köster and Matthias Sutter

No 333, DICE Discussion Papers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE)

Abstract: We examine whether shrouding or partitioning of a surcharge raises demand in online shopping. In a field experiment with more than 34,000 consumers, we find that consumers in the online shop of a cinema initiate a purchase process for a 3D movie more often when the 3D surcharge is shrouded, but they also drop out more often when the overall price is shown at the check-out. In sum, the demand distribution is independent of the price presentation. This result qualifies previous findings on the effectiveness of shrouding surcharges and can be rationalized through low cancellation costs.

Keywords: Salience; Inattention; Shrouding; Price partitioning; Field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-pay
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: To buy or not to buy? Price salience in an online shopping field experiment (2020)
Working Paper: To Buy or Not to Buy? Price Salience in an Online Shopping Field Experiment (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:dicedp:333

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