Working paper
Is it always "the Faster, the Better"? The Role of a Nudging-based Function in the Relationship between Product Delivery and Online Sales
SSRN
03/23/2026
DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.6325598
Abstract
Delivery time is one of the keys to e-commerce success. Although retailers are taking steps to offer fast delivery services, these approaches are expensive and may not be sustainable in the long term. By leveraging a unique shift resulting from user-interface designs on eBay.com, we find that introducing a nudging-based function, i.e., a guaranteed delivery toggle, is a promising cost-effective approach that may ameliorate the relationship between slow delivery time and product sales. Specifically, our research devises three complementary studies-1) examining the sales impact of the toggle function using a large-scale secondary dataset, 2) investigating the underlying mechanism of the toggle effectiveness through laboratory and online experiments, and 3) analyzing the far-reaching impacts on consumers' subsequent rating behaviors-to establish the external and internal validity and robustness of this finding. We attribute the expansion of slow-delivery item sales (Study 1) to the subtle change in the design of the choice architecture from simultaneous to sequential attribute choices (Study 2). Study 3 reveals the mitigation of dimensional rating bias toward delivery time, further interpreting the nudging effect of sequential attribute choices. Given the dilemma of e-commerce for fast-delivery provision, our research elucidates how practitioners improve their operational decisions to address the last-mile logistics problem by factoring in a simple and free delivery-related nudge.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Is it always "the Faster, the Better"? The Role of a Nudging-based Function in the Relationship between Product Delivery and Online Sales
- Creators
- Hongpeng Wang - Lanzhou UniversityQianzhou Du - University of Science and Technology of ChinaLiangfei Qiu - University of FloridaWeiguo Fan - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Working paper
- DOI
- 10.2139/ssrn.6325598
- Publisher
- SSRN
- Number of pages
- 49 pages
- Language
- English
- Date posted
- 03/23/2026
- Academic Unit
- Business Analytics
- Record Identifier
- 9985149577602771
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