Article: Amazon's behaviour during corona pandemic: the case study of office and stationery category in Germany Journal: International Journal of Economics and Business Research (IJEBR) 2024 Vol.28 No.5 pp.1 - 23 Abstract: The study presented in the paper concentrates on the behaviour of the world's largest online retailer Amazon in Germany in the office and stationery category for the period from January 2020 to December 2021. We revealed that the company mainly concentrated on maintaining the share of products that are sold on its website by itself and not by other sellers. It, therefore, had to decrease its sales price from March to November 2020. The sales prices then followed the development of the purchase prices till May 2021 and exceeded them for the rest of the investigated period; however the average growth of sales prices that was not caused by the growth of purchased prices and the VAT effect achieved only 2.83%. Amazon seems to have not abused its dominant position when it tried to keep its customers and not to give them a reason for switching to its competitors. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Amazon's behaviour during corona pandemic: the case study of office and stationery category in Germany

Authors: Robert Laskowski; Petr Wawrosz; Lenka Kopecká; Zora Říhová; Roman Svoboda

Addresses: Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Finance and Administration, Estonská 500, 101 00 Praha 10-Vršovice, Czech Republic ' Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6 – Suchdol, 16500, Czech Republic ' Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6 – Suchdol, 16500, Czech Republic ' Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Branišovská 1645/31a, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic ' Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6 – Suchdol, 16500, Czech Republic

Abstract: The study presented in the paper concentrates on the behaviour of the world's largest online retailer Amazon in Germany in the office and stationery category for the period from January 2020 to December 2021. We revealed that the company mainly concentrated on maintaining the share of products that are sold on its website by itself and not by other sellers. It, therefore, had to decrease its sales price from March to November 2020. The sales prices then followed the development of the purchase prices till May 2021 and exceeded them for the rest of the investigated period; however the average growth of sales prices that was not caused by the growth of purchased prices and the VAT effect achieved only 2.83%. Amazon seems to have not abused its dominant position when it tried to keep its customers and not to give them a reason for switching to its competitors.

Keywords: Amazon; firm behaviour; corona pandemic; Buy Box; dominant market position; prices; online price index (indices); online trade; office and stationery goods; Germany.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2024.140205

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2024 Vol.28 No.5, pp.1 - 23

Received: 13 Feb 2024
Accepted: 06 Jun 2024
Published online: 29 Jul 2024 *

Title: Amazon's behaviour during corona pandemic: the case study of office and stationery category in Germany

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