Universität zu Köln

Cremer, Stefan and Loebbecke, Claudia (2021). Selling goods on e-commerce platforms: The impact of scarcity messages. Electron. Commer. Res. Appl., 47. AMSTERDAM: ELSEVIER. ISSN 1873-7846

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Abstract

E-commerce platforms prominently advertise low levels of inventory (only three units left) for 'long tail' goods in physical or digital formats. Thus, they wish to trigger consumer perceptions of scarcity and ultimately promote sales. In this paper, we develop a model on how in scarcity messages, the inventory level affects the online sales goods. We test the model against evidence from e-commerce sales data of about 35,000 printed books. We find that for e-commerce sales, lower inventory promotes sales late but inhibits purchases in the early stages of the purchase process. We reflect this counterintuitive finding against propositions grounded in different theoretical bodies. Thereupon, we summarize our research contributions and provide some implications for research and practice. We conclude with identified study limitations and suggestions for future research.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Cremer, Stefan UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Loebbecke, Claudia UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-565552
DOI:	10.1016/j.elerap.2021.101039
Journal or Publication Title:	Electron. Commer. Res. Appl.
Volume:	47
Date:	2021
Publisher:	ELSEVIER
Place of Publication:	AMSTERDAM
ISSN:	1873-7846
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language CONSUMER CHOICE; PROSPECT-THEORY; PRODUCT; INFORMATION; DESIRABILITY; DECISION Multiple languages Business; Computer Science, Information Systems; Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/56555