Competing Sales Channels with Captive Consumers

We study strategic interactions in markets in which firms sell to consumers both directly and via a competitive channel (CC), such as a price comparison website or marketplace, where multiple sellers’ offers are visible at once. We ask how a CC’s size influences market outcomes when some consumers have limited price information. A bigger CC means more consumers compare prices, increasing within-channel competition. However, we show such seemingly pro-competitive developments can raise prices and harm consumers by weakening between-channel competition.

MediBot: An Ontology-Based Chatbot to Retrieve Drug Information and Compare its Prices

In this article, we present the MediBot. MediBot is a chatbot for querying drugs information. The presented system acted as a single access point for natural and simplified information retrieval of drugs, prices, and its risks. The chatbot has two modes of operation: Quick Response and Interactive modes. The first answers questions asked in natural language, while the second has three interactive tasks, namely Browser, Query, and Price Comparison. We present here the system architecture, the Linked Data Mashup’s construction process, and Chatbot MediBot’s activities modes, focusing on the new Price Comparison’s task. This task presents the best prices for medicines and their best potential substitutes extracted in real-time from the Web with the help of the information obtained from a linked data mashup.

Determinants of drug prices: a systematic review of comparison studies

ObjectiveIn this systematic review on drug price comparison studies, we report on recent determinants of drug prices in a national and international context to facilitate regulation of drug prices by purchasers and policymakers worldwide. Determinants of drug prices were divided into non-modifiable and modifiable and were categorised as pertaining to a country’s income level, pharmaceutical market system and its policies and government.Primary outcomeDeterminants of drug prices or price variance.DesignWe systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science and Cochrane Library for peer-reviewed articles published between 2004 and 22 July 2020 that reported an association of the primary outcome with one or more determinants. We performed a best-evidence synthesis of these associations for determinants covered in at least three studies.Results31 publications were included. Only one publication described net drug prices and 30 described retail drug prices. Five modifiable determinants were associated with lower retail prices: generic market portion, discounts, tendering policies, central (governmental) purchasing and pricing regulation schemes. The originators market portion and a system in which mark-ups are common were associated with higher retail prices. Retail prices were highest in the USA, even compared with other high-income countries. A positive association between national income level and drug retail prices could not be established among middle-income and high-income countries. Retail prices were highest in low-income countries when adjusted for purchasing power parity.ConclusionsLiterature on determinants of net drug prices is extremely sparse. Various healthcare system interventions, market-specific and governmental regulations are consistently associated with lower retail prices. Some interventions are easily implementable in developing or middle-income countries, such as tendering, central purchasing and fixed pricing regulation schemes. Net drug price comparison studies are needed to overcome the lack of price transparency and to quantify the effectiveness of policy measures on net drug prices.

Development of Ecommerce Web Application: Pick & Buy

Electronic commerce is a process of performing business through online modes using computer networks. Now-a-days Ecommerce is seen as an important part of many businesses and business plan. It is beneficial in terms of cost reduction, fast buying, affordable advertisements and marketing, flexibility for buyers, product and price comparison and last but not the least time- saving. Using Ecommerce websites for shopping is not only easy and effortless but also less time consuming. Ecommerce is useful for feedbacks and helps the business owners to build a more efficient and secure business environment for customers.

OPTIMIZATION OF LAMPUNG BATIK PRODUCTION USING THE SIMPLEX METHOD

The Production and Profit optimization application in this Batik company was built to solve their problems. This application has the ability to process raw material data, working time data, production requirements data and load data for optimization calculations. The basis for calculations carried out includes optimization calculations using the Simplex Method and the tools used are Excel Solver and Python Programming. The output of this application is that how many Batik are produced based on available resources, the total cost of expenses incurred during the production process as well as gross profit and net of sales. This application can increase company profits and the percentage level of profit depending on the price comparison of sales between one product to another

RELATE-AND-DISCOVERY: exploring the confluence of UX design and electronic word-of-mouth in travel technology

Due its costly and intangible nature, travel-related purchases involve a lot of complex decision-making, and are therefore deemed high-risk. However, since the turn of the millennium, as web-enabled technologies grew increasingly more prevalent, the manner in which people seek information has evolved, thus distorting our traditional understanding of the buyer’s journey. Using search-powered, online platforms, consumers now deploy an arsenal of means to discover new goods, services, and activities. While there are countless price comparison websites and virtual communities for obtaining travel information, all of the existing networks neglect the most effective and longstanding breed of communications—a form that regularly outperforms the standard approaches to advertising: word-of-mouth (WOM). Namely, a process in which consumers can discover information not only through search, but by relating to one another. As a result, the market is devoid of a tool for sharing personalized, experience-based, destination-specific travel recommendations with friends and family. Through Dispatch, a mobile app prototype and research proxy, the efficacy of online WOM (eWOM) will be explored further, revealing how this behaviour phenomenon coexists with the intricacies and nuances of user experience (UX) design.

RELATE-AND-DISCOVERY: exploring the confluence of UX design and electronic word-of-mouth in travel technology

Due its costly and intangible nature, travel-related purchases involve a lot of complex decision-making, and are therefore deemed high-risk. However, since the turn of the millennium, as web-enabled technologies grew increasingly more prevalent, the manner in which people seek information has evolved, thus distorting our traditional understanding of the buyer’s journey. Using search-powered, online platforms, consumers now deploy an arsenal of means to discover new goods, services, and activities. While there are countless price comparison websites and virtual communities for obtaining travel information, all of the existing networks neglect the most effective and longstanding breed of communications—a form that regularly outperforms the standard approaches to advertising: word-of-mouth (WOM). Namely, a process in which consumers can discover information not only through search, but by relating to one another. As a result, the market is devoid of a tool for sharing personalized, experience-based, destination-specific travel recommendations with friends and family. Through Dispatch, a mobile app prototype and research proxy, the efficacy of online WOM (eWOM) will be explored further, revealing how this behaviour phenomenon coexists with the intricacies and nuances of user experience (UX) design.