This thesis empirically analyzes consumer behavior under price comparison information which has similar form on shopping intermediaries such as BottomDollar.com, Borders.com - sites that allow consumers to make "one-click" price comparisons for product offerings from multiple retailers. By allowing researchers to observe exactly what information the consumer is shown and their search behavior in response to the information, these data have unique strengths for analyzing consumer behavior. Furthermore, the effects on the 4 sources of price dispersion summarized in Understanding Digital Markets, are analyzed mainly focused on retailers brand and trust, awareness.
While brand is an important determinant of customer choice, we find that, among consumers under price comparison information, branded retailers and retailer awareness do not allow to hold significant price advantages in head-to-head price comparisons. Further, customers are very sensitive to the price. We also find that consumers choose higher price, when blind to retailer, as a proxy for a retailer``s credibility with regard to non-contractible aspects of the product bundle such as shipping time.