Earticle

초록

영어

Product categorization has been considered as an effective tool in lowering user search costs and enhancing the discoverability of a product/seller from a large selection of products/sellers [1-2]. As such, many online commerce platforms often create or eliminate product categories to improve the matching between two different parties (e.g., sellers and buyers). It is also well-known that product categorization can be one solution to resolve the adverse effects of superstar (or ranking) effects for sellers. By offering product categories, platform service providers can increase the likelihood of matching between sellers and consumers [3] and create a less competitive marketplace by providing sellers with the opportunity to migrate to a less competitive category [4]. For consumers, product categories are expected to lower their search costs, allowing them to find goods or services that meet their needs more easily [5]. While the benefits of product categorization have been welldocumented, however, there is still a paucity of research concerning how supplier (or sellers) can utilize product re-categorizations especially in digital goods markets. Therefore, this study examines how digital good suppliers can leverage platform-driven product re-categorizations for success in mobile app software markets. Apple App store, the world’s largest app store market, created a new category (i.e., Shopping) in November 2015 and asked app developers to switch voluntarily from the existing category to the new one (i.e., Shopping from Lifestyle category). Using a quasi-experiment design, we attempt to examine the impact of category migration on app performance. To do this, we gathered data on mobile applications (henceforth, app) from Apple App Store recorded from April 9th, 2015, to November 4th, 2016. In our dataset, we observed the migration of apps within 4 weeks after the category split, with different apps moving from Lifestyle to Shopping at different times. Aggregated data on weekly base, we divided migrated apps into four groups based on their migration timing, with the first group moving in the same week as the new category introduction and the other three groups moving in consecutive weeks. For preliminary analyses, we compared the performance of apps four weeks before and after migration using T-test. Overall, the performance measures improved after the category split for both apps stayed in Lifestyle and those moved to Shopping, while movers show greater improvement compared to non-movers. Furthermore, we found that earlier movers revealed better performances than later movers. The preliminary findings indicate that product recategorization helps consumers to find appropriate digital goods for their needs, leading to improved performance. Based on our preliminary findings, we expect that re-categorization of digital goods can benefit both sellers and consumers by facilitating better matching between them. We further anticipate that our study will identify the most effective migration strategies for sellers by comparing the performance of apps based on their migration timing. Moreover, we expect our findings to provide salient contributions to the extant literature by shedding light on how sellers can utilize platform-driven product re-categorizations through migration. On the practical front, we expect to provide valuable information to platform owners and digital goods sellers.

목차

Extended Abstract
References

저자

• Mingi Song [ Korea University Business School ]
• Gunwoong Lee [ Korea University Business School ]

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