Sellers 3.5 times more influential than buyers in driving e-commerce platform growth
Wednesday, November 30, 2016 - 14:31
in Psychology & Sociology
E-commerce platforms, such as Uber and eBay, which link sellers and buyers, face the perennial dilemma of what is more lucrative, supporting the needs of the buyers or the sellers. The traditional belief has been that it is more important to focus on buyers, who create demand, than on sellers. A forthcoming study in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science, sheds new light on this dilemma with the discovery that sellers are in fact 3.5 times more impactful than buyers in driving growth of e-commerce platforms. The study's findings provide valuable insight that will enable the managers of these platforms to make policy adjustments that will further incentivize sellers.