Spatial Competition on Psychological Pricing Strategies -- Preliminary Evidence from an Online Marketplace

Abstract

This paper investigates whether spatial proximity shapes psychological-pricing choices on Austria's C2C marketplace willhaben. Two web-scraped snapshots of 826 Woom Bike listings - a standardised product sold on the platform reveal that sellers near direct competitors are more likely to adopt 9-, 90-, or 99-ending prices, who also use such pricing strategy unconditional on product characteristics or underlying spatiotemporal differences. Such strategy is associated with an average premium of approximately cet. par. 3.4 %. Information asymmetry persists: buyer trust hinges on signals such as the "Trusted Seller" badge, and missing data on the "PayLivery" feature. Lacking final transaction prices limits inference.

arXiv comment14 pages, 7 tables, 5 figures, 12 references