The Online Seller’s Strategy Based on Customer Time Preference Under Advance Selling Mode

This paper investigates the problem of pre-sale decisions in online e-commerce where consumers have time preferences. In pre-sales, consumers’ valuation of a product is not certain until they receive it, and their purchase decision is not only influenced by price, but also by the length of pre-sales. By choosing a pre-sale strategy that takes into account consumers’ time preferences, retailers can not only anticipate market demand and increase sales margins, but also win market share and serve consumers better. Based on these observations, this paper investigates how retailers can determine the optimal price decision for a general discounted pre-sale model when considering pre-sale length and consumer time preference.