Optimizing time limits for maximum sales response in Internet shopping promotions

Sellers usually set a promotional time limit to ensure that products can be sold as soon as possible in Internet markets. This research attempts to build a decision support system that optimizes the time limit for maximum sales response or profit in Internet shopping promotions. We decompose the effect of time limits into two opposing forces, which are the awareness and urgency of a promotional offer that are depicted as hyperbolic S-shaped functions. Using the decision calculus approach, we can determine the optimal promotional time limit with different input parameters. We illustrate the use of the proposed system with real world examples and conduct some sensitivity analyses. We compare our numerical results from hyperbolic functions with those from simple exponential functions; we find that hyperbolic functions yield more appropriate promotional time limits on Internet. This research contributes to the field of decision support by providing a new approach to determining the optimal time limit for online sales promotions. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.