Impact of Product and Platform Level Sampling on the Sale of Online Video Courses

We study the impact of product and platform level sampling on customer purchases at an online video course platform. As with other experience goods, customers of these courses face a considerable amount of quality and product fit uncertainty, which sampling can mitigate. Using a 12-month long dataset, we empirically establish that both product level samples (course previews) and platform level samples (free courses) positively influence purchase decisions. Though both types of sampling are effective, they act in different ways. Product level sampling provides direct information about the focal product, and therefore has a more immediate effect on the purchase decisions. Meanwhile, platform level sampling, which only provides indirect information about quality and fit, takes time to affect purchases through an accumulation of information and goodwill. We also find complementarities between these two sampling strategies. Platform level sampling increases the effectiveness of product level sampling in motivating focal course purchases. These results provide managers guidance on which type of sampling to use and when