New product promotion and E-commerce; effects of retailer webpage layout on buyer behavior

This article studies effects of webpage layout in an online retailer on buyer behavior towards new products and is a sequel to a study performed by authors in department stores. Webpage layout -in terms of parameters which influence buyer behavior- is formulated by two variables; pattern of prices and pattern of popularity. A novel method based on above-mentioned study, has been developed to measure these two factors, so that they can be compared against retailer sales statistics. Investigating this relationship helps both online retailers and marketing agents to better understand effect of webpage layout in promoting a newly developed product. Results show that correlation between price difference and department share is strong. There is a weak correlation between pick (popularity) difference and share from retailer sales. Finally we have tested prediction power of our model. A set of recommendations for webpage layout is developed based on the results of the research for marketing professionals.