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New research on price from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including how to predict demand and set prices from new products, the benefit of deconstructing the price tag, and why more comapnies don't bundle products and services.
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If Your Customers Don't Care What You Charge, What Should You Charge?

by Kristen Senz

Consumer inertia is the tendency of some customers to buy a product, even when superior options exist. Alexander J. MacKay discusses how that habit affects competitive strategy and even regulatory oversight. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The 'Amazon Effect' Is Changing Online Price Competition—and the Fed Needs to Pay Attention

by Roberta Holland

Amazon's power in the retail sector puts price pressure on what competitors charge, with implications for how federal regulators govern inflation, says Alberto F. Cavallo. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

The Impacts of Increasing Search Frictions on Online Shopping Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment

by Donald Ngwe, Kris J. Ferreira, and Thales Teixeira

This paper challenges the logic that making it easier for consumers to search across a wide assortment of products is the best strategy for online retailers. Experiments show that adding extra search costs to find discounted items can improve gross margins and sales by increasing the number of items inspected and serving as a self-selecting price discrimination mechanism among customers.

Opportunistic Returns and Dynamic Pricing: Empirical Evidence from Online Retailing in Emerging Markets

by Chaithanya Bandi, Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe, and Zhiji Xu

Dynamic pricing is widely applied in industries like airline ticketing, ride-sharing, and online retailing. This paper identifies two downsides of dynamic pricing: opportunistic returns and strategic choice of payment method. The impact can be significant and has implications for managers and researchers.

Shipping Fees and Product Assortment in Online Retail

by Chaoqun Chen and Donald Ngwe

This study highlights a strong link between an online retailer’s product assortment decisions and shipping policies in determining purchase outcomes and profits. Consumers are less sensitive to shipping fees than to product prices, but free shipping for orders above the minimum is a strong motivator for increasing average basket sizes.

Bargain Hunters Beware: A Store's 'Original Price' Might Not Be After All

by Michael Blanding

Retailers often compare a "sale" price to the original price. Donald Ngwe says consumers should be skeptical of those original prices — and so should regulators. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

That Costs HOW Much?

by Sean Silverthorne

Beyond the attributes of the product itself, price is probably the leading determinant of success in the marketplace. What does it takes to get the price right? Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Should Retailers Match Their Own Prices Online and in Stores?

by Dina Gerdeman

For multichannel retailers, pricing strategy can be difficult to execute and confusing to shoppers. Research by Elie Ofek and colleagues offers alternative approaches to getting the price right. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Would You Price One of the World's Great Watches?

by Roberta Holland

For companies with lots of innovation stuffed in their products, getting the price right is a crucial decision. Stefan Thomke discusses how watchmaker A. Lange & Söhne puts a price on its 173-year-old craftsmanship. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Why Online Retailers Should Hide Their Best Discounts

by Michael Blanding

Online retailers should take a tip from brick-and-mortar shops: Shove your best deals to the back of the store. Research by Thales Teixeira and Donald Ngwe. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Targeted Price Controls on Supermarket Products

by Alberto Cavallo and Diego Aparicio

Governments sometimes consider targeted price controls when popular goods become less affordable. Looking at price controls in Argentina between 2007 and 2015, this study’s findings suggest that new technologies like mobile phones are allowing governments to better enforce targeted price control programs, but the impact of these policies on aggregate inflation is small and short-lived.

Using Online Prices for Measuring Real Consumption Across Countries

by Alberto Cavallo, W. Erwin Diewert, Robert C. Feenstra, Robert Inklaar, and Marcel P. Timmer

The increasing availability of big data can improve measurement of real consumption in closer to real time. This study shows that online prices may enhance data of the International Comparisons Program, dramatically improving the frequency and transparency of purchasing power parities compared with traditional data collection methods.

The Long-Run Dynamics of Electricity Demand: Evidence from Municipal Aggregation

by Alexander MacKay, Tatyana Deryugina, and Julian Reif

This study provides the first quasi-experimental estimate of the long-run elasticity (responsiveness) of residential electricity demand, and finds that it is about double the short-run elasticity. Our findings highlight the importance of accounting for consumption dynamics when evaluating energy policy.

Brokers and Order Flow Leakage: Evidence from Fire Sales

by Andrea Barbon, Marco Di Maggio, Francesco Franzoni, and Augustin Landier

This study finds that brokers tend to reveal the occurrence of a fire sale to their best clients, allowing them to generate significant profits by predating on the liquidating fund. Such information leakage comes at the expense of higher price impact, and leads to a more costly liquidation for the fire sale originator.

For Women Especially, It Pays to Know What Car Repairs Should Cost

by Wendy Guild Swearingen

Consumers can negotiate cheaper auto repair prices by convincing service reps they know something about market rates—helping women overcome gender discrimination, according to recently published research by Ayelet Israeli and co-authors. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

How Do You Predict Demand and Set Prices For Products Never Sold Before?

by Carmen Nobel

How can a retailer use its own data to determine what to charge for its products on a day-to-day basis? Kris Ferreira explains the value of data-driven-pricing Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

Online Network Revenue Management Using Thompson Sampling

by Kris Johnson Ferreira, David Simchi-Levi & He Wang

Kris Johnson Ferreira and colleagues develop a machine learning algorithm that changes product prices in order to learn consumer demand and maximize total revenue in the presence of limited inventory.

Deconstructing the Price Tag

by Dina Gerdeman

A new study by Bhavya Mohan, Ryan Buell, and Leslie John has an important conclusion for retailers: Explaining what it costs to produce a product can potentially increase its sales. Open for comment; 10 Comment(s) posted.

Why Do Outlet Stores Exist?

by Michael Blanding

Created in the 1930s, outlet stores allowed retailers to dispose of unpopular items at fire-sale prices. Today, outlets seem outmoded and unnecessary—stores have bargain racks, after all. Donald K. Ngwe explains why outlets still exist. Open for comment; 7 Comment(s) posted.

Better by the Bundle?

by Dina Gerdeman

Video game companies do it, fast-food restaurants, too. Why don't more companies bundle products and services together in one package at a bargain price? Research by Assistant Professor Vineet Kumar. Closed for comment; 3 Comment(s) posted.