The Substitutability between Brick-and-Mortar Stores and e-Commerce – The Case of Books
We analyze the substitutability between brick-and-mortar stores and e-Commerce. Using a novel data set on the German book market we find that between 26 and 55% of the decrease in book sales from 2014- 2017 can be explained by the decrease in the number of bookstores. This indicates that brick-and-m...
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| Published in: | MAGKS - Joint Discussion Paper Series in Economics (Band 11-2020) |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | PDF Full Text |
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| Summary: | We analyze the substitutability between brick-and-mortar stores and e-Commerce. Using a novel data set on the German book market we find that between 26 and 55% of the decrease in book sales from 2014- 2017 can be explained by the decrease in the number of bookstores. This indicates that brick-and-mortar stores and e-Commerce are imperfect substitutes. One explanation could be that some consumers prefer to purchase books online because of the service provision in brick-and-mortar stores (e.g., advice, atmosphere, presentation, saleseffort, etc.). We also find that the degree of substitutability differs between different types of books. When a bookshop closes the decrease in sales of fiction titles is more than 2 times larger than the decrease in sales of non-fiction titles. Our findings indicate that regulatory measures and vertical restraints that increase the number of bookstores can have a positive effect on the demand for books even in the presence of e-Commerce |
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| Physical Description: | 32 Pages |
| ISSN: | 1867-3678 |
| DOI: | 10.17192/es2024.0638 |