Effect of Bargaining in Electronic Commerce

Internet business has grown at an unprecedented rate in the past several years. Recent research has found that the functions provided by a store have a significant impact on customer purchase decisions. Price bargaining is a common practice in traditional businesses, and this study investigates its effect in electronic commerce, focusing on three different bargaining strategies. An intelligent agent that allows customers to bargain for a better price was implemented and integrated into experimental stores. The results show that consumers prefer shopping at bargaining stores even when there is no financial gain. Different bargaining strategies and customer personalities may also affect the outcome and customer satisfaction. KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: Electronic commerce, intelligent agents, price bargaining. The revolution of the computer network and the World Wide Web (WWW) has changed traditional commercial activities, such as shopping, brokerage, negotiating, and retailing. Customers ca...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1999
• Where: WECWIS
• Authors: Ting-Peng Liang, Her-Sen Doong
• Keywords: Customers, ECommerce, Intelligent Agents, Price Bargaining, WECWIS 1999