To Buy or Not to Buy? Price Salience in an Online Shopping Field Experiment

Markus Dertwinkel-Kalt (), Mats Köster () and Matthias Sutter ()
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Mats Köster: Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

No 13798, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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 are more likely to select tickets for a 3D movie when the 3D surcharge is shrouded, but they also drop out more often when the overall price is shown at the checkout. In sum, the demand distribution is independent of the price presentation. This result outlines the limits of the effectiveness of shrouding practices.

Keywords: price partitioning; shrouding; inattention; salience; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2020-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-pay
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: European Economic Review, 2020, 130, 103593

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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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