Essay --

Foreign scholars had many empirical studies on the price level and price dispersion in the E-commerce market. They were as the follows: 1) In 2000, Brown and Goolsbee had discovered that the insurance price became lower and the dispersion degree varied from high to low with the gradual perfection of the selling channel on the internet. Morton, etc. (2000) had studied the vehicle price and found out that the vehicle price online was lower than the price offline and the price dispersion varied from high to low. Erevelles, etc. (2001) took a research on the price of vitamin (health products) and discovered that the price was lower online and the price dispersion was lower than that of the traditional market. Durisin and Carimarti (2003) inspected the price of books and CDs and they came to a similar conclusion that the price of these products was lower on the internet. These scholars had taken researches on the price of books, CDs, medicine, vehicle and insurance and they observed that the utilization of internet had not only reduced the market price but also the price dispersion in E-commerce market. 2) Clay, etc.(1999) had collected the prices of over 100 kinds of books in 13 online bookstore and 2 traditional bookstore and the study results revealed that even though the average price of online bookstore and traditional bookstore were basically the same, there was an obvious price dispersion among the online bookstores[11]. Brynjolfsson and Smith (2000) had studied the prices of books and CDs online and in the entities stores and they concluded that the price in the E-commerce marker was lower than that that of the traditional market and the price dispersion degree was higher. To further their study, Clay and Tay (2002) had made a... ...led the multi-channel retailers. Many scholars had compared and studied the price and price dispersion of Dotcoms and multi-channel retailers. Pan, etc.(2002) observed that Dotcoms’ prices of CD, DVD, desktop computer and laptop were lower than that of the multi-channel retailers; Dotcoms’ prices of books and software were higher than that of the multi-channel retailers; Dotcoms’ prices of PDA and electronic products were similar to that of the multi-channel retailers. What’s more, the price divergence of these eight kinds of products declined as time went on but it always existed. Pan, etc.(2002) took another research and it illustrated that Dotcoms’ prices of clothes and ornaments, presents, flowers, health care, beauty treatment, gardening, sports, computer hardware, electronic products and the office products were lower than that of the multi-channel retailers.