The Effectiveness of E-tailers' Communication Practices in Stimulating Sales of Slow-Selling versus Best-Selling Products

Based on 60,000 books (approx. 2m purchase decisions) from Amazon.de, we analyze the interplay of four e-tailers' communication practices – presenting product networks (recommendation systems), social features (eWOM, i.e. user-generated content), free trial, and vivid content – and demonstrate how they vary in effectiveness for influencing consumers’ purchase decisions online. Additionally, little is known about effects of these practices on driving sales across the sales distribution from bestsellers to niche products. Long tail theory predicts that consumers will become particularly attracted to buying niche products as those match personal preferences better than mainstream products. However, our large-sample results are partly counter to the theoretical predictions and previous studies in the field (as both bestsellers and niche products gain sales at the expense of medium popular products). We offer a clearer understanding of the varying functionality of online communication practices that helps retail managers select, combine and focus their communication practices.