Sponsored visibility and attention allocation in E-commerce marketplaces: Evidence from a multi-country Amazon search panel
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, cilt.94, 2027 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 94
- Basım Tarihi: 2027
- Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2026.104987
- Dergi Adı: Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Periodicals Index Online, Geobase, DIALNET
- Anahtar Kelimeler: E-commerce marketplaces, Organic signals, Panel data, Retail media, Search ranking, Seller concentration, Sponsored search
- Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
- Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Search visibility is a central competitive resource in e-commerce marketplaces, where sponsored products appear within ranked search results alongside ratings, reviews, prices, delivery cues, and platform badges. This study examines how sponsored visibility relates to the conversion of organic marketplace signals into consumer-facing search visibility and whether this relationship varies across sellers and search-market conditions. The analysis uses a daily panel of the first 50 Amazon search results for 96 harmonized purchase-oriented keywords in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany, covering 1,482,650 product–keyword–country–day observations, 247,318 products, 61,442 sellers, and 120 days. Marketplace visibility is measured using inverse rank and top-position indicators, sponsored visibility from platform-displayed labels, and sponsored density as the sponsored share of a keyword–country–day search market. Fixed-effects models indicate that sponsored visibility is associated with higher search visibility and a 5.94 percentage-point higher probability of top-ten placement. Higher sponsored density is associated with weaker visibility returns from ratings, review volume, fast delivery, and marketplace badges, and with a weaker visibility penalty for higher relative price. Event-study estimates around the first sponsored appearance indicate higher visibility after sponsored entry, with no detectable pre-entry trends. Seller-level analyses show stronger sponsored-visibility associations among larger sellers, while advertising-intensive search markets exhibit greater seller-visibility concentration. The theoretical contribution is to specify sponsored visibility as a ranking-interface condition that changes how organic marketplace signals become discoverability. The findings clarify how retail media reshapes the visibility value of ratings, reviews, delivery, badges, and price, with implications for seller competition, marketplace design, and transparency.