A Reference Price Effect of Buy-Now Prices in Internet Auctions

Retailers selling items through Internet auctions frequently use buy-now prices (BNPs), which allow the selling of items immediately to consumers at a fixed price. We propose and estimate a new model of the reference price effects of BNP on bidders’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) in online auctions. We also study under what conditions a BNP can be effectively used as an external reference price (ERP). Results of two experiments clearly indicate that BNPs have a reference price effect. We find, however, that this effect is moderated by (1) the ease of value assessment and (2) product class (i.e. low versus high-end products).



Citation:

Peter Popkowski Leszczyc, Chun Qiu, and Yongfu He (2008) ,"A Reference Price Effect of Buy-Now Prices in Internet Auctions", in LA - Latin American Advances in Consumer Research Volume 2, eds. Claudia R. Acevedo, Jose Mauro C. Hernandez, and Tina M. Lowrey, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 137-138.

Authors

Peter Popkowski Leszczyc, University of Alberta, Canada
Chun Qiu, McGill University, Canada
Yongfu He, University of Alberta, Canada



Volume

LA - Latin American Advances in Consumer Research Volume 2 | 2008



Share Proceeding

Featured papers

See More

Featured

Priming & Privacy: How Subtle Trust Cues Online Affect Consumer Disclosure and Purchase Intentions

James A Mourey, DePaul University, USA
Ari Waldman, New York Law School

Read More

Featured

Communicating a Promise of Change: Visual Steps Enhance Process Imagery

Luca Cian, University of Virginia, USA
aradhna krishna, University of Michigan, USA
Chiara Longoni, Boston University, USA

Read More

Featured

Consumer Responses to Premium Framing: Better to Offer the Target Product as a Free Gift?

Maggie Wenjing Liu, Tsinghua University
Lu Yang, Tsinghua University
Yuhuang Zheng, Tsinghua University

Read More

Engage with Us

Becoming an Association for Consumer Research member is simple. Membership in ACR is relatively inexpensive, but brings significant benefits to its members.