Sales Platforms Research Articles

Research on the Development Strategy of Integrated Seed Sales Industry

The seed sales industry has achieved rapid development with mankind entering the Internet era. In recent years, the seed sales industry has developed rapidly, and competition within the industry has continued to intensify. In order to achieve commercial benefits, there are many irregularities in the industry chain. Currently, solving various irregularities in industrial development and achieving industry breakthroughs are urgent problems to be solved. This study proposes an industrial development strategy for the integration of seed sales, which involves the use and combination of information system technology and comprehensive sales platforms to achieve the integration of seed research and development, production, sales, transportation, and after-sales services, as well as value co creation throughout the seed sales industry chain, promoting high-quality and sustainable development of the industry.

Features that Guarantee High-Quality Authorship for Social E-Commerce

Demand for flower arrangements from various market segments in Indonesia is growing along with increasing consumer interest in using social media-based online sales platforms. Creative money bouquet product ideas are one of the newest trends in the flower arrangement business. The risk of lower product quality often arises after the delivery process, where the product received does not match the image published on the platform. Customer dissatisfaction often occurs in similar transactions due to the role of product packaging in increasing the quality of the money bouquet product. The aim of this research is to find out how appropriate product packaging can increase the selling power of a product on the market. This research uses a qualitative with a narrative approach as the research methodology. The sampling method used in this research was purposive sampling. The research object is @Moneyrist.id and The subjects in this research are IE-social customers.commerce. Observation and unstructured interviews were used to collect data, with the findings showing that product packaging is designed according to customer needs and must consider safety factors. This is a guarantee that the product will reach the customer's hands in good condition. The implications of this research focus on increasing customer trust through features that ensure the quality of money arrangements on social e-commerce platforms, with a case study on Moneyrist.id.

Social media and digital marketing strategies for combating stunting: An intervention in Sidomulyo Village, Secang

Business actors increasingly need to master technology to expand their market reach. However, many MSMEs in Sidomulyo Village have not adopted digital platforms for marketing and sales. This initiative introduced digital marketing and the use of social media to these business actors. Through socialization, counseling, and mentoring, participants gained knowledge about online sales platforms, mastered online marketing techniques, and successfully launched online product promotions. Additionally, the project facilitated the creation of new Cendana batik designs, improved product packaging, and enhanced product photography skills.

Economic Dynamics of Urban Fishermen in Muarareja: The Death of Fish Auction Places

This study examines the closure of the Fish Auction Place (TPI) in Muarareja, which was caused by debt agreements between fishermen and fish traders for boat purchases. The closure of the TPI has led to fishermen losing access to a competitive sales platform and becoming dependent on the traders' markets. The research method used was qualitative with a case study approach, through semi-structured interviews, direct observation, and documentation. The research participants included 6 skippers or fishermen who own ships, 5 crew members (ABK), 6 collectors or traders, and 3 mothers who make salted fish around the TPI. Data collection was carried out from June 1 to August 28, 2023. The purpose of the study was to analyze changes in the dynamics of patron-client relationships among fishermen in Muarareja and to examine the economic and social impacts of the closure of the TPI. The results showed that the closure of the TPI changed the mechanism of buying and selling fish to be more closed to patrons (traders), which significantly affected the social and economic dynamics of urban fishermen. Based on these findings, it is recommended to examine the effectiveness of alternative programs such as fishermen's cooperatives or micro-loans, and further research is needed on the revitalization of the TPI to improve the overall welfare of fishermen. In the context of public policy, it is also necessary to consider strategies that strengthen the capacity of fishermen in facing increasingly complex global economic challenges. This research is expected to provide significant theoretical and practical contributions to the field of sociology, especially economic sociology.

Mobile platform expansion: How does it affect the incumbent food delivery app and other sales channels?

Food delivery apps (FDAs) are popular sales platforms, and many restaurants rely on multiple FDAs. Adding more FDAs represents a novel type of channel expansion (i.e., platform-to-platform), though no prior studies have examined its performance implications to determine if introducing a new, competing FDA might cannibalize or enhance a restaurant's customer acquisition and sales through the incumbent FDA. Furthermore, introduction timing, local competition, and store characteristics might moderate these effects, with implications for the restaurant's total sales over time. Using associative network theory, together with 557,127 purchase records gathered from 173,537 customers, we apply a panel regression model across 18 store locations of a restaurant chain. The results show that adding a competing FDA has positive synergistic effects on the restaurant's customer acquisition and sales (including sales revenues and order volumes) through the incumbent FDA, especially if it adds the competing FDA long (vs. soon) after the prior FDA and the store is younger (vs. older). Larger stores and those located in competitive areas benefit more from mobile platform expansion. The positive effects of introducing a competing FDA on total sales diminish over time though. These findings can inform both research into and the practice of mobile platform expansions.

Optimizing delivery routes for sustainable food delivery for multiple food items per order

The diversity of consumer demand for take-out food has led to the characteristic structure of one order with multiple items, where the different food items in a single order are provided by two or more merchants. In the context of multi-item delivery for take-out orders with time windows, this study investigates vehicle routing for order delivery. This research aims to improve the service level of merchants and the efficiency of delivery vehicles. Food vendors receive orders from consumers through online platforms, then package the food items according to the orders. This method is a preliminary exploration of the issue of fulfilment of takeout orders on online platforms, and can provide preliminary theoretical support for decision-making on the delivery process of takeout orders on online platforms. In the context of online catering sales platforms and offline food sales merchants, this paper studies the delivery problem of takeaway orders with a time window and the characteristics of one order and multiple items, and constructs a method that takes the order delivery time requirements into account and minimizes the total order fulfilment cost. Taking into account the time window constraints of both physical restaurants and consumers, genetic algorithms are utilized to solve the order delivery problem. Finally, through case studies and experiments, the effectiveness and feasibility of the mathematical model are validated. Practical recommendations and insights are provided from the perspective of management and route planning.

The role of information quality, ease of use and usefulness on consumers’ trust in Facebook and WhatsApp groups as online sales platforms

Facebook and WhatsApp, recognised as popular social media and messaging platforms, are increasingly being used as online sales platforms through the emergence of marketplaces, online stores and groups. Businesses and individual sellers create groups on these platforms to attract buyers who share similar interests, but the buyers and sellers often do not know one another, which may cause trust issues. Therefore, sellers should be aware of the factors that influence a buyer’s trust so that strategies can be developed to mitigate trust issues that may hinder sales transactions. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of information quality, perceived ease of use and usefulness on consumers’ trust in Facebook and WhatsApp groups as online sales platforms. Following a descriptive research design, the data was gathered from 412 participants by means of an electronic self-administered questionnaire that was distributed to the South African database of an international research company. The statistical methods that were used to analyse the data included reliability measures, HTMT analysis and structural equation modelling. The findings of the study revealed that the information quality and perceived ease of use of WhatsApp and Facebook groups significantly influence the perceived usefulness of these groups, which, in turn, influences consumers’ trust in WhatsApp and Facebook groups as online sales platforms. In conclusion, by understanding the relationship between these factors, social media platforms could alter their group features, while businesses and individual sellers can improve their marketing strategies to instil trust among group members and ultimately increase sales.

Human intake assessment of triclosan associated with the daily use of polypropylene-made antimicrobial food packaging

In this work, we aimed to evaluate human intake of triclosan (TCS) associated with real-life use of different brands of Microban™ microwave-safe food packaging. Calculations were based on: TCS migration data (under the worst-case foreseeable conditions), MPs abundance and TCS bioaccessibility from microplastics (MPs), leached from containers under microwave heating. Bioaccessibility studies were performed with in vitro digestion of MPs, followed by liquid-liquid extraction of TCS from digestive fluids and LC-QqQ-MS analysis yielding values of 46 ± 9%.The estimated weekly intake (EWI) of TCS ranged between 11 and 42 μg/kg body weight/week, with migration being the largest contribution (0.6–2.3 mg/week), compared to leaching of MPs (75–300 μg/week). These values represent a significant source of human exposure to TCS, emphasizing the need to harmonize the ban of TCS in food contact materials worldwide and improve compliance testing of food contact articles, particularly those marketed through online sales platforms.

Whether to Add a Digital Product into Subscription Service?

Digital products companies are increasingly adopting subscription pricing, but consumers who pay the subscription service may not be able to access all digital products sold on the sales platform. This paper explores the question of why some digital products are not in the subscription service of the sales platform. To address this problem, we develop an analytical model to examine two strategies of the firm. One is that the firm does not add the new product into the subscription service, the other is that the firm adds the new product into the subscription service. By comparing the profits under two sets, we find the condition under which the firm should add the new digital product into the subscription service. The results show that if the percentage of existing subscribers is below a certain threshold, and the subscription price is over a certain threshold, it is better for the firm to add the new product into the subscription service. We also analyze how the main variables affect the firm’s profit and the piracy rate. Our research provides useful insights for firms in choosing pricing schemes for the newly released product and offers advice for policymakers on controlling the piracy rate of digital products industry.

Exploring consumer segments for online food provisioning services: Online supermarkets vs. alternative food networks

Recent years have witnessed a surge in online food provisioning services spanning from online mass retail to alternative food networks with digital sales platforms. Hence, enhancing our understanding of consumer preferences in the digital food space is vital, as digitalization holds significant potential to alter consumer habits within the food sector. To address this, we surveyed a representative sample of Norwegian consumers. We employed best-worst scaling to assess their preferences for eighteen characteristics derived from a variety of online food provisioning services. The characteristics covered business model elements such as key partners, resources, activities, distribution channels, and customer relations. Our findings identify two consumer segments. The first segment, labeled the Convenience segment, prioritizes efficient delivery and user-friendly interfaces, characteristics that resonate with online supermarket services. The second segment labeled the Local segment, prioritizes a wide range of locally and sustainably produced food in line with the ethos of alternative food networks. Notably, the latter segment, accounting for 48 % of the respondents, views several of the convenience characteristics derived from online mass retail as important. Taking the convenience preferences of the Local segment into account could broaden the appeal of alternative food networks and other sustainability-oriented niche providers to a wider range of consumers.

Examining digital influencers’ impact on customer's hedonic motivation, utilitarian motivation and purchase intention

The purpose of this study is to investigate how external factors influence people's intentions to buy food online. A survey was conducted using an online form that was widely distributed to people who follow digital influencers on social media, have made online food purchases, and live in Jabodetabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi). The study was conducted to gather a more comprehensive view of consumer shopping behavior in Indonesia by combining trends, visual appeals, sales promotion, and information availability from digital influences in social media that impact customer motivation (hedonic and utilitarian) and customer purchase intention for food products online. The research results demonstrate a genuine relationship between digital influences and their impact on social networks as a new trend of the digital era. The study also proves that there is a positive relationship between the hedonistic motivation and the Utilitarian motivation on purchase intention. Moreover, the research shows that promotions carried out on different platforms from the sales platform can also have a significant impact on consumer motivation and purchasing intentions. Based on the research results, we recommend that food product sellers should consider using digital influences as promotional tools on social platforms. We recommend that future researchers investigate differences in shopping motivation based on different products or consumer market segments, especially in terms of external factors that trigger motivation to shop for food through digital activities.

Clustering analysis for classifying fake real estate listings.

With the rapid growth of online property rental and sale platforms, the prevalence of fake real estate listings has become a significant concern. These deceptive listings waste time and effort for buyers and sellers and pose potential risks. Therefore, developing effective methods to distinguish genuine from fake listings is crucial. Accurately identifying fake real estate listings is a critical challenge, and clustering analysis can significantly improve this process. While clustering has been widely used to detect fraud in various fields, its application in the real estate domain has been somewhat limited, primarily focused on auctions and property appraisals. This study aims to fill this gap by using clustering to classify properties into fake and genuine listings based on datasets curated by industry experts. This study developed a K-means model to group properties into clusters, clearly distinguishing between fake and genuine listings. To assure the quality of the training data, data pre-processing procedures were performed on the raw dataset. Several techniques were used to determine the optimal value for each parameter of the K-means model. The clusters are determined using the Silhouette coefficient, the Calinski-Harabasz index, and the Davies-Bouldin index. It was found that the value of cluster 2 is the best and the Camberra technique is the best method when compared to overlapping similarity and Jaccard for distance. The clustering results are assessed using two machine learning algorithms: Random Forest and Decision Tree. The observational results have shown that the optimized K-means significantly improves the accuracy of the Random Forest classification model, boosting it by an impressive 96%. Furthermore, this research demonstrates that clustering helps create a balanced dataset containing fake and genuine clusters. This balanced dataset holds promise for future investigations, particularly for deep learning models that require balanced data to perform optimally. This study presents a practical and effective way to identify fake real estate listings by harnessing the power of clustering analysis, ultimately contributing to a more trustworthy and secure real estate market.

A Study on the Continued Use of KnowledgeBased APP Users in Guizhou Based on the Perspective of Perceived Value

The wide variety of products offered by online sales platforms makes choosing the correct item a challenging task. The expertise and knowledge of customers in such product assortments can vary widely. Therefore, there is a need for intelligent recommender systems that provide personalized dialogues that support customers during the product selection process. The three research objectives are: to explore the factors in continuing for using knowledge-based apps; to identify the relationship between influencing factors and sustainable usage intention; to search for the countermeasures and suggestions for the continued development of applications user policies.

Exploring the spillover effect and supply chain coordination in dual-channel green supply chains with blockchain-based sales platform

With the increasing consumer demand for environmentally friendly products, it has become crucial for manufacturers to effectively communicate their sustainability efforts. While the literature extensively examines the benefits of blockchain technology in facilitating informed decision making, little research has explored its cross-channel influence (spillover effect) on decisions in a dual-channel green supply chain. In this study, we investigate a green supply chain with a manufacturer operating a direct channel and making efforts to improve product greenness and a blockchain-based sales platform whose service has a spillover effect on consumer valuation of product greenness in the direct channel. Our findings indicate that, in an uncoordinated supply chain, the spillover effect adversely affects the platform but benefits the manufacturer, while it benefits both parties under coordination. This underscores the importance of supply chain coordination for the sales platform to capitalize on the spillover effect. Moreover, under coordination, variations in key parameters generally align product greenness with supply chain profitability. Finally, the spillover effect typically triggers a shift in demand from the platform to the direct channel, whereas a stronger consumer preference for the platform tends to drive the opposite shift in demand. Interestingly, when product greenness improvement is less costly and the blockchain cost is significant, the spillover effect can stimulate sales on both channels. And, when product greenness improvement is less costly and the blockchain cost is small, a stronger consumer preference for the platform can lead to a shift in demand from the platform to the direct channel.

Los retos de la criminalidad organizada en España

The article describes the most pressing challenges of organized crime in Spain as a significant country in the development of many of the illegal markets taking place in Europe. First, it analyses the sustained growth of the two largest illicit markets as a particularly alarming trend. Secondly, it explains the development of organized criminal activities through the network and new technologies, as well as the sale of illegal products using cryptomarkets and more superficial sales platforms that have grown considerably thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. Finally, it assesses the situation in southern Spain related to hashish trafficking is evaluated from the point of view of social and political infiltration that can be recognized with accessible data.

Risk-taking in consumers’ online purchases of health supplements and natural products: a grounded theory approach

BackgroundHealth supplements and natural products are widely used by the general public to support physical function and prevent disease. Additionally, with the advent of e-commerce, these products have become easily accessible to the general public. Although several theoretical models have been used to explain the use of health supplements and natural products, empirical evidence on how consumers make decisions to purchase online health supplements and natural products remains limited.MethodsIn this study, a grounded theory approach was used to develop a substantive theoretical model with the aim of investigating the decision-making process of consumers when purchasing health supplements and natural products online. Malaysian adult consumers who had purchased these products via the Internet were either purposively or theoretically sampled. A total of 18 virtual in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted to elicit participants’ experiences and priorities in relation to this activity. All the IDIs were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were analysed using open coding, focus coding and theoretical coding. The analytical interpretations and theoretical concepts were recorded in research memos.ResultsConsumers’ decisions to purchase a health supplement or natural product over the Internet are based on a series of assessments regarding the perceived benefits and risks of this activity, which may be related to the product or the process. In the online marketplace, consumers attempt to choose products, online sellers, sales platforms and/or purchase mechanisms with lower perceived risk, which ultimately enhances their confidence in five elements related to the purchase: (1) product effectiveness, (2) product safety, (3) purchase convenience, (4) fair purchase and (5) online security. Consumers take an acceptable level of risk to purchase these products online, and this acceptable level is unique to each individual and is based on their perception of having control over the potential consequences if the worst-case scenario occurs.ConclusionsIn this study, a substantive theoretical model is developed to demonstrate how consumers decide to purchase online health supplements and natural products by accepting an acceptable level of risk associated with the product or process. The emerging model is potentially transferable to other populations in similar contexts.

The arduous art of empowering visual artists: why the Dutch digital sales platform Patty Morgan ultimately failed

This article investigates Patty Morgan, a Dutch digital sales platform for emerging visual artists, founded in 2013 out of a dissatisfaction with capitalistic practices. The analysis is situated against the backdrop of the increasing financial struggles of small-scale galleries, which play a crucial role in promoting new artists, consequently threatening a loss of innovation. Patty Morgan’s goal was to generate cultural and economic value through scouting, promoting and mediating activities, all the while maintaining a fair, digital approach with supportive settings for artists. It can be seen as an atypical case of how idealistic entrepreneurs try to enable visual artists to capture more of the value they create. Using key elements of the Global Production Network approach, i.e. governance and embeddedness, this article investigates why Patty Morgan’s digital approach ultimately failed. Discussing the reasons behind Patty Morgan’s financial hardship helps grasp why scouting and promoting emerging artists is not financially rewarding within the current visual arts ecosystem, especially in relation to the Dutch sociocultural and institutional context. This article suggests that, for the purpose of safeguarding the visual arts industry, funding policy needs to be reconsidered and responsibility for demand needs to be further discussed.

The spatial linkage of Taobao Villages in Haining City based on the operation process

As an industrial phenomenon with rich Chinese characteristics, Taobao Villages have formed a complete industrial chain from production to sale and core goods to supporting industries, bringing extensive spatial linkage and profound influence. Through questionnaire surveys and interviews, the paper obtained first-hand data on Taobao Village stores in Haining City and explored the spatial linkage characteristics of Taobao Village’s industrial chain from the operation process perspective. The results revealed that the operation process of online stores can be divided into four core parts: research & development or sampling, production or purchasing, online sale, and delivery. The main operation parts of self-production and sales stores and local-dependent online market-oriented stores were in Haining City, forming close industrial linkages, whereas for nonlocal-dependent online market-oriented stores, only a few parts of the operation process were in Haining. Accordingly, Taobao Villages and Haining City undertook all parts of the operation, becoming a complex space and also the main area realizing a strong spatial linkage among Taobao Villages. The area outside Jiaxing City is mainly a sales market (Hangzhou City provides a sales platform), and their connection with Taobao Village relies primarily on the Internet. To form a more extensive spatial linkage and play a leading role, Haining City should encourage the self-production and sales stores and local-dependent online market-oriented stores to create a locally-rooted production system or industrial cluster.

Analysis of the Marketing Strategy of the Zara Brand in the Era of the Digital Economy

With the continuous popularization of the Internet today, the digital economy has become the main force of national economic development, especially after the outbreak of the epidemic. People are more concentrated on online consumption, and international fast fashion brands with stores as the main sales mode have been hit hard. Therefore, digital transformation is of great significance to contemporary fast fashion consumer brands. This paper takes the marketing strategy of the internationally famous clothing brand Zara in the process of digital transformation as the research content. Based on the existing literature and data, this paper uses the SWOT model to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of its strategy. The results confirmed the vertical distribution system of brand integration and the marketing strategy of keeping up with fashion prices and close to the crowd, found problems such as low efficiency of online promotion and lack of innovation in online sales, and suggested strengthening social media marketing, improving online sales platform and other suggestions to provide effective measures for the digital transformation of fast consumer goods brands such as Zara.

A new uncertain multi-objective programming model with chance-entropy constraint for advertising promotion.

The COVID-19 outbreak has forced people to stay at home to prevent the spread of the virus. In this case, social media platforms have become the main communication venue for people. Online sales platforms have also become the main field for people's daily consumption. So, how to make full use of social media to carry out online advertising promotion, and then achieve better marketing, is one of the core issues that the marketing industry must pay attention to and solve. Therefore, this study takes the advertiser as the decision-maker, maximizes the number of full playing, likes, comments and forwarding, and minimizes the cost of advertising promotion as the decision-making goals, and Key Opinion Leader (KOL) selection as the decision vector. Based on this, a multi-objective uncertain programming model of advertising promotion is constructed. Among them, the chance-entropy constraint is proposed by combining the entropy constraint and the chance constraint. In addition, the multi-objective uncertain programming model is transformed into a clear single-objective model through mathematical derivation and linear weighting of the model. Finally, the practicability and effectiveness of the model are verified by numerical simulation, and decision-making suggestions for advertising promotion are put forward.