Consumer demographics and geographics: Determinants of retail success for online auctions

Abstract

This study investigates transactions of two eBay sellers of consumer goods to determine if certain demographics and geographics related to individual American consumers can be utilised to predict retail sales and the average value of those sales. The average value of each sale is equivalent to the sum of the amount bid for each item and the shipping cost for that item. A sample of 753 transactions of these two eBay retailers was analysed. The significant variables include consumer gender, whether the consumer lives in a rural or urban area and the region in the US in which the consumer resides. The implications of these results are significant to both eBay retailers and scholars alike as this study presents findings that bring us nearer to understanding consumer internet buying behaviour.