TY  - RPRT
A1  - Morath, Florian
A1  - Münster, Johannes
T1  - Online shopping and platform design with ex ante registration requirements
N2  - We study platform design in online markets in which buying involves a (non-monetary) cost for consumers caused by privacy and security concerns. Firms decide whether to require registration at their website before consumers learn relevant product information. We derive conditions under which a monopoly seller benefits from ex ante registration requirements and demonstrate that the profitability of registration requirements is increased when taking into account the prospect of future purchases or an informational value of consumer registration to the …rm. Moreover, we consider the effectiveness of discounts (store credit) as a means to influence the consumers-registration decision. Finally, we con…rm the profitability of ex ante registration requirements in the presence of price competition.
KW  - E-commerce
KW  - Privacy concerns
KW  - Security concerns
KW  - Registration cost
KW  - Platform design
KW  - Monopoly
KW  - Price competition
KW  - Information
KW  - Digital Transformation
Y1  - 2016
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/42869
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-428690
UR  - http://www.digital.uni-koeln.de/sites/digital/user_upload/paper/MorathMuenster.pdf
IS  - July 12, 2016
ER  -