Study on spatial pattern and spatial mismatch of experiential online group-buying market in China

Abstract

With the rapid development and widespread application of network technology, online shopping is having profound impact on the economy and lifestyle of urban residents. Group-shopping based on network platform is emerging in recent years. Experiential online group-buying have had significant impact on the geographic patterns of consumption because of its space limitations of services. Using comprehensive scale index, development level index, concentration index, and spatial mismatch index, this study takes China's 30 provincial cities and municipalities as objects to examine the spatial pattern and spatial mismatch of experiential online group-buying market based on the 360 group-buying navigation website. The results show that:(1) The scale of experiential online group-buying commodities in these provincial cities and municipalities is unbalanced, and the development of market is led by the eastern developed cities, as well as by growth pole cities of the western region.(2) The development of experiential online group-buying market in provincial cities and municipalities is mostly in either small scale and low level or large scale and high level, showing a clear polarized situation.(3) Economic development is the fundamental driving factor of the expansion of experiential online group-buying market. Consumption potential scale of online retail market, scale of internet infrastructure,size of the user group of internet and level of development of the internet also have significant influences on the expansion of the market scale.(4) The spatial mismatch between experiential online group-buying market and consumption demand in China is small, but the spatial mismatch between experiential online group-buying market and purchasing power is large. Cities that have too big or too small experiential online group-buying markets have made a significant contribution to this spatial mismatch.