Effects of Pre-sales Posted Price Channel on Sequential B2B Dutch Flower Auctions

Multichannel sales strategies have become common in consumer markets due to the usage of advanced information technologies. However, the interactions between multichannel prices in Business-to-Business (B2B) markets are largely underexplored. This paper investigates the impact of a pre-sales posted price channel on the performance of the century-old sequential B2B Dutch flower auctions. The pre-sales channel is conducted online ahead of the auctions. Only a specified fraction of each flower lot can be sold through the pre-sales. Given this limit, growers can decide on their participation, available quantity and selling price. Flowers that are not sold during the pre-sales are added to the auctions. Our analysis of over 2 million flower lots traded in 2015 reveals a higher total revenue for lots that are offered in the pre-sales as compared to lots that are not. The result holds true even for lots where no actual sales occurred in the pre-sales channel.