Publications

December 2019
Article

The Impact of Increasing Search Frictions on Online Shopping Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Donald Ngwe, Kris J. Ferreira and Thales Teixeira

Many online stores are designed such that shoppers can easily access any available discounted products. We propose that deliberately increasing search frictions by placing small obstacles to locating discounted items can improve online retailers’ margins and even... View Details

Keywords: Online Retailing; Friction; Effor; Search Costs; Price Discrimination; Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Strategy; Price; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry

Find at Harvard

January 2017
Case

Expanding Ecommerce at Technos

By: Thales Teixeira, Rohit Deshpandé, Ruth Costas and Priscilla Zogbi

Technos was the market leader in the Brazilian watch market. Its CEO had made a firm commitment to evolve the company’s marketing and commercial practices by focusing less on pushing product to retail clients and more on branding to end consumers to pull watches from... View Details

July 2019 (Revised November 2019)
Case

Osaro: Picking the Best Path

By: William R. Kerr, James Palano and Bastiane Huang

The founder of Osaro saw the potential of deep reinforcement learning to allow robots to be applied to new applications. Osaro targeted warehousing, already a dynamic industry for robotics and automation, for its initial product—a system which would allow robotic arms... View Details

May 2019 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

By: William R. Kerr and Jordan Bach-Lombardo

Faced with intense competition from Amazon, Walmart began a transformation of its operations and workforce in 2015. The goal was to create an omnichannel retail experience for customers that seamlessly joined online and offline shopping. This case explores Walmart's... View Details

Keywords: Walmart; Managing The Future Of Work; Workforce; Automation; Ecommerce; Omnichannel Retail; Operations; Transformation; Employees; Training; Information Technology; Infrastructure; Disruption; Competitive Strategy; E-commerce; Information Infrastructure; Retail Industry

17 Nov 2020
In Practice

How Retailers Can Thrive in a Shopping Season Like No Other

retailers’ annual sales, so it is a critical time to get retail execution right. Dynamic pricing strategies must be carefully executed to maximize margins while driving volume. Inventory turns must be carefully monitored so that physical... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Retail

04 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

Why dot.coms Will Rise Again

McFarlan's high-spirited session, called "Global Internet and E-Commerce Strategies in the 21st Century," stressed the creative approaches four companies—Li & Fung, Cisco Systems, Charles... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

19 Oct 2009
Research & Ideas

Why Are Web Sites So Confusing?

search, the 11th objective search result might be more relevant than any of the sponsored search results displayed on the right; yet it will be displayed on the second search page only—well beyond the reach of most users. Most e-commerce... View Details

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu & Bruno Jullien

17 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 17

that participants who chose by mind wandering would evaluate their outcome as inferior to participants who deliberated (Experiment 1), participants who used mind wandering as a decision strategy evaluated their choice just as positively... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2018 (Revised July 2019)
Case

BulkWhiz: Negotiating as a Startup Founder in the UAE

By: Katherine Coffman, Christine Exley and Alpana Thapar

This case follows Amira Rashad as she founds BulkWhiz, a Dubai-based buy-in-bulk grocery delivery platform. Following its launch in September 2017, BulkWhiz experiences rapid growth of 30 percent per month in the United Arab Emirates. Despite this initial success,... View Details

26 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

Yes, You Can Raise Prices in a Downturn

As economic turmoil continues, many companies are reconsidering their strategies with an eye toward going lean and slashing prices. And that might work for a few companies—but very few. Instead, companies should compete "on the basis... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail; Consumer Products

January 2020 (Revised April 2020)
Teaching Note

Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods

By: Jill Avery

Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods (CPG), offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3.00 price point that promised... View Details

Keywords: Brand; Brand Management; DTC; Private Label; Groceries; Packaged Food; Personal Care; Startups; Retailing; Amazon; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Business Startups; Disruption; E-commerce; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; United States

February 2024
Module Note

Data-Driven Marketing in Retail Markets

By: Ayelet Israeli

This note describes an eight-class sessions module on data-driven marketing in retail markets. The module aims to familiarize students with core concepts of data-driven marketing in retail, including exploring the opportunities and challenges, adopting best practices,... View Details

07 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Online Retailers Should Hide Their Best Discounts

e-commerce world is a brutal competitive environment,” says Harvard Business School marketing professor Thales Teixeira. “One of the biggest levers retailers have at their disposal to bring in customers is price.” More discounts, however,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail

15 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

Amazon Prime Day: The Logic Behind a Retailer’s Made-up Holiday

huge motivation to try something like this." Amazon is not the first to try launching its own shopping holiday. Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba manufactured its own event in 2009 with "Singles Day," which takes place on... View Details

Keywords: Re: Sunil Gupta; Retail

Forthcoming
Article

Organizational Emplacement as a Response to Digital Threat: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores

By: Ryan Raffaelli and Ryann Noe

This study reveals how incumbent actors leverage physical place as source of differentiation in response to the threat of digital commoditization. Through a longitudinal, qualitative analysis of the U.S. independent bookselling industry from 1995 to 2019, we outline... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Place Making; Bookstores; Industry Evolution; Digital; Commoditization; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Digital Transformation; E-commerce; Distribution Channels; Civil Society or Community; Value Creation; Retail Industry

Read Now

19 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 18

capabilities. Forecasts are generally associated with many of the factors that money managers rate as important in their assessments of analyst contributions, including industry growth and competitiveness, low-price strategy, strategy... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

Big Deals: Financing Large-Scale Investments

latest e-commerce enterprise. And in a new MBA elective course he has developed, Large-Scale Investment, Esty examines how private firms structure, value, and finance large, first-of-a-kind (or greenfield) projects. "Although the... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

20 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

Moving from Supply Chains to Supply Networks

about processing speed. We also have the capacity to store programs in memory without having to access data from the disc. EE: Does a clear-cut strategy exist for achieving success in supply chain management? Raman: To provide a partial... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

January 2015 (Revised October 2016)
Case

onefinestay: Building a Luxury Experience in the Sharing Economy

By: Jill Avery, Anat Keinan and Liz Kind

onefinestay was a two-sided marketplace that offered high-end home rentals to travelers who sought a more authentic and local experience than a typical upscale hotel might provide. After five years of rapid growth, it was time to do a comprehensive analysis of the... View Details