E-Commerce and Price Setting: Evidence from Europe
Open accessAbstract
E-commerce has become more prevalent throughout Europe in the last decade. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic accelerated this trend, particularly in the retail sector. This paper focuses on the implications of increasing business-to-consumer e-commerce for prices and inflation in the euro area. It highlights three key results. First, whether online prices and inflation are higher or lower than their offline counterparts depends on the distribution model, the sector and the country. Moreover, properly selected online prices track official inflation indices even in real time. Second, the effect of e-commerce on inflation appears to be transient and differs between countries. However, as the penetration of some markets is still low, these transitory effects will likely persist at the euro area level for several years. Third, online prices change more frequently than offline prices. This might lead to greater price flexibility overall as online trade gains market share in a growing number of sectors.
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Strasser et al. (2023) confirmed a contemporaneous correlation between offline and online prices of well above 60% in France and the United Kingdom.
“Strasser et al. (2023) has confirmed this relationship, showing a contemporaneous correlation between offline and online prices of well above 60% in France and the United Kingdom.”
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Strasser, G. H., Wieland, E., Macias, P., Błażejowska, A., Szafranek, K., Wittekopf, D., Franke, J., Henkel, L., & Osbat, C.
- Affiliations
- European Central Bank (DE)
- Deutsche Bundesbank (DE)
- National Bank of Poland (PL)
- Corresponding author
- Strasser, Georg H.
- Venue
- SSRN Electronic Journal
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2023
- ISSN
- 1556-5068 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4385060258
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › General Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Monetary Policy and Economic Impact
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economics of Agriculture and Food Markets
- Keywords
- e-commerce, B2C e-commerce, online prices, inflation, price setting, price flexibility, COVID-19 pandemic, retail trade, euro area, inflation indices, transient effects
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