What Influences Online Sales Across Different Types of E-Commerce Platforms

ABSTRACT

The prosperity of the platform economy has facilitated online sales. This study investigates the influential factors of online sales across the online-to-offline (O2O) on-demand and traditional business-to-consumer (B2C) platforms. Our empirical evidence is based on data with a large sample size on two of the largest e-commerce platforms in China: an O2O on-demand platform and a traditional B2C platform. We find that the influencing mechanism and magnitude of the various factors are different between the O2O and B2C platforms. In detail, product rating and market share positively affect online sales, and the relative magnitude of market share impact is higher for the B2C platform than for the O2O platform. Clickstream positively affects online sales. Both the short- and long-term magnitude of impact are higher for the O2O platform than for the B2C platform. The long-term impact of clickstream in the O2O platform is higher than that in the short term. In addition, a price increase negatively affects online sales, especially for the O2O platforms. Our findings offer insights for various platforms to implement appropriate marketing strategies and post effective information to attract consumers and increase online sales.

KEY WORDS AND PHRASES:

• Online sales
• online platforms
• information provision
• B2C platforms
• O2O platforms
• on-demand platforms

Acknowledgments

This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 72172169, 71872200, 71903024, and 91646125) and the Program for Innovation Research at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hongyan Dai

Hongyan Dai ([email protected]) is a professor in the Business School, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China. She received her Ph.D. from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Dr. Dai’s research interests include sharing economy, O2O logistics network design, and data-driven optimization. She has published more than 20 papers in international journals, including European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, and Annals of Operations Research. She is the principal investigator for several national and provincial level projects, including the Major Research Plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and several industry projects, such as Jingdong Daojia, State Grid, and Siemens. She serves as the research fellow of the China Society of Logistics and as a review specialist of the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Qin Xiao

Qin Xiao ([email protected]) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Business School, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China. Her research interests include O2O logistics network design and data-driven optimization. She has published several papers in international journals, such as International Journal of Production Economics. She has participated in national and provincial level projects, including the Major Research Plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and industry projects, such as Jingdong Daojia.

Nina Yan

Nina Yan ([email protected]) is a full professor in the Business School, Central University of Finance and Economics, China. She received her Ph.D. in management science from Northeastern University. Dr. Yan’s research interests include supply chain finance, operations management, and platform economics. She has published more than 20 papers in such journals as Decision Sciences, Decision Support Systems, European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Business Research, and Omega.

Xun Xu

Xun Xu ([email protected]) holds a Ph.D. in operations management from Washington State University. He is an associate professor of operations management at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Dr. Xu’s research interests include service operations management, supply chain management and coordination, sustainability, e-commerce, data and text mining, and hospitality and tourism management. He has published more than 50 papers in such journals as Decision Sciences, Decision Support Systems, European Journal of Operational Research, Information and Management, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, International Journal of Hospitality Management, International Journal of Information Management, International Journal of Production Economics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of the Operational Research Society, and many others.

Tingting Tong

Tingting Tong ([email protected]; corresponding author) is an associate professor in the Institute of Supply Chain Analytics and the International Business College at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, China. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr.Tong’s research focuses on operations management, labor economics, and applied econometrics. Her papers have been published by such journals as China Economic Review, Decision Sciences, Decision Support Systems, International Journal of Production Economics, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Transport Geography.