The booming development of E-Commerce saw the trading volumes grow each year. One of the risks for retailers engaging in electronic commerce is the dreaded pricing error. However, there have been instances of mislabelling on websites. As soon as hackers spot any deviation of online price tags from market levels, they would place rush orders and quickly accumulate trading volumFes. This study observes 48 mislabelling incidents online in 2000~2010. The research motivation is surrounding the unusual 22 mislabelling incidents in 2009~2010. The biggest contribution of this study is the finding that the PageRank values of websites surge after a massive number of consumers accessing the websites with mislabelled price tags. In an interesting twist, online shopping sites benefit from putting wrong prices on products, especially for the websites that appear mostly on the second or later page on results derived from a search performed on a search engine. The wrong price tags move them to the top 10 items on the first page of searched results. Whilst mislabelling may damage reputations of these websites in the short run, proper risk management, crisis handling and incentives acceptable to consumers can turn this into blessing in disguise. A positive response from media and recognition from consumers can enhance brand profiles and impress the public as a responsible company. If all managed well, mislabelling can be a good thing.
Relation:
Information Technology Journal 10(7), pp.1442-1446
