Customer behavior and adoption · 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
Vibhanshu Abhishek, Kinshuk Jerath, Siddhartha Sharma (2024). The Impact of ‘Retail Media’ on Online Marketplaces: Insights from a Field Experiment. Information Systems Research. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.0188
Plain-English take
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).
How much weight to give this
4/5 Field or experimental evidence with bounded scope
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every 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.
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.
Review the paper for comparison conditions and analysis.
Publisher record checked; detailed methods were not verified.
Double-blind? Blinding was not established from the publisher page.
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.
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).
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
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.
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.
Evidence access
Publisher page; full-text availability varies and was not established.
Study metadata and reported results were cross-checked against a direct publisher-page retrieval; detailed full-text methods were not reviewed.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.