Internet Product Prices in Emerging Economies

Abstract

The rapid development and expansion of the Internet and supporting technologies has enabled several innovations in ecommerce, including e-business models, electronic distribution of products, diverse consumer search models, recommendation models and digitization of physical products. One impact of such innovations has been on the costs and therefore, prices of products sold through the Internet. Several studies have explored prices of products sold through the Internet and have identified and researched issues including impacts of competition, cost transparency of products sold through the Internet, price dispersion of products sold online as well as comparison of dispersion of prices of similar products sold online as well as offline. However, research on both the phenomenon of Internet expansion as well as product prices have been primarily focused on developed economies. Moreover, the crucial role of various supporting institutions, such as government regulations favoring ecommerce, fulfillment and logistics services, and financial and payments support providers are rarely considered in depth in such analysis.