Traditional online platforms (e.g., Amazon Marketplace) use Unilateral Rating System (URS), where customers rate sellers. However, sharing economy platforms (e.g., Uber, Airbnb) have adopted Bilateral Rating System (BRS) that also allows service providers to rate customers, and even selects customers based on their ratings.…Read More
Market thickness is a key parameter that can make or break a platform’s business model. Thicker markets can offer more opportunities for participants to meet and higher chances that a potential match would exist. …Read More
Etsy CFO Rachel Glaser tells how, with nearly 60 million items to browse, the e-commerce company is aiming to show shoppers the results that best match them.…Read More
CTO Mitch Berg talks about how the online marketplace for buying and selling used cars is tapping into a space long owned by mom-and-pop retailers.…Read More
Jules Pieri, author of How We Make Stuff Now and CEO of The Grommet (a site that launched SodaStream, Bananagrams, and more) has advice for entrepreneurs on prototyping, branding, and selling.…Read More
Geralyn Breig (W’84), CEO of AnytownUSA.com, describes the processes her company has developed to connect online shoppers with verifiably American-made goods.…Read More
Ajay Anand (WG’13), Founder of Rare Carat, explains how the company is working to increase transparency in the diamond industry and smooth out the purchasing process for consumers.…Read More
Offline demise and offline renaissance is the paradox of new retail writ large. Swiss multinational financial services company Credit Suisse projects that by the time the numbers are in, more than 8,500 stores in the United States will have closed in 2017.…Read More
This study investigates a recent phenomenon in the market for technology: online marketplaces for technological inventions, which support the listing, search, and exchange of technological inventions by sellers and buyers. Focusing on three salient theoretical factors that affect markets for technology—search costs, ambiguity about the underlying knowledge and its applications, and expropriation concerns—our research systematically explores which industries are served by online marketplaces.…Read More
Retail customers are now “omnichannel” in their outlook and behavior — they use both online and offline retail channels readily. To thrive in this new environment, retailers of all types should reexamine their strategies for delivering information and products to customers.…Read More
Conventional wisdom holds that the internet makes the world flat and reduces friction by erasing the impact of the physical world on our buying habits. But Wharton professor David Bell argues that the way we use the internet is still largely shaped by the physical world we inhabit.…Read More
