Platforms · Large-scale marketplace field experiment at Flipkart changing the fraction/placement of sponsored listings interleaved with organic search results; outcomes were clicks and conversions for sponsored, displaced, neighboring organic listings, and the search overall.
The Impact of ‘Retail Media’ on Online Marketplaces: Insights from a Field Experiment
Information Systems Research · 2024
Summary
Sponsored listings underperformed displaced organic listings in electronics but outperformed them in clothing/footwear; neighboring organic effects moved oppositely. Overall clicks and conversions did not change when sponsored share rose about 10 points, while marketplace ad revenue rose (short-run implication).
For your marketing
Possible founder application
Use this study as a bounded example related to the impact of ‘retail media’ on online marketplaces: insights from a field experiment; evaluate whether its customers, intervention and outcome match your own context.
Reported result
What the study found
Sponsored listings underperformed displaced organic listings in electronics but outperformed them in clothing/footwear; neighboring organic effects moved oppositely. Overall clicks and conversions did not change when sponsored share rose about 10 points, while marketplace ad revenue rose (short-run implication).
Research question
What the authors investigated
What does the impact of ‘retail media’ on online marketplaces: insights from a field experiment show about customer behavior or marketing outcomes?
Design
Large-scale marketplace field experiment at Flipkart changing the fraction/placement of sponsored listings interleaved with organic search results; outcomes were clicks and conversions for sponsored, displaced, neighboring organic listings, and the search overall.
Sample and setting
Flipkart, a leading online marketplace in India; electronics, clothing, and footwear search categories. The abstract reports about a 10-percentage-point increase in sponsored-listing share but not a total N.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
The authors explicitly qualify the overall implication as short run; conservative inference: one Indian marketplace and selected categories limit transport to other marketplaces/categories and longer-run consumer or seller outcomes. Full-text methods and correction history were not independently checked.
Research sources
Study metadata and reported results were cross-checked against a direct publisher-page retrieval; detailed full-text methods were not reviewed.