Tracking Price Trends Using User–Product Interaction Data From a Price Comparison Service

Mattias Rydenfelt ()
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Mattias Rydenfelt: Prisjakt Sverige AB

Chapter Chapter 27 in Advances in Quantitative Economic Research, 2022, pp 393-408 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Using online prices has made it possible to estimate inflation rates at a larger scale and higher time resolution than were previously possible. In this chapter, we introduce a daily updated chain index to track prices in over 2400 different product categories and brands over time using data from online price comparison service Prisjakt. Our price index, among others, allows (1) users to optimize purchase decisions in time using historic trends, (2) stores to revise pricing strategies, (3) data analysts to derive business insights at high temporal and categorical resolution, and the index could (4) aid national statistic offices in inflationary studies. By using user–product interaction data as a proxy for quantities sold, products in the index can be weighted by user popularity. Chaining a price index at high frequency, however, presents challenges with potentially large biases, as has been observed in recent studies on scanner data. Here we show that much of these biases can be handled by carefully constructing product weights, without resorting to more involved multilateral indices. Finally, we compare our price index to matching product categories in the official Statistics Sweden consumer price index.

Keywords: Online inflation; Consumer price index (CPI); Price comparison; E-commerce (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-030-98179-2_27

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-98179-2_27

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