Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the price of extra virgin olive (EVO) oil and its main quality attributes, in the specific case of business-to-consumers electronic commerce (B2C EC) channel. The final objective is to provide useful insights for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) interested in online selling of EVO.Design/methodology/approach: – A hedonic price model was estimated considering the following attributes: packaging, cultivar composition, organic certification, oil extraction method, origin certification and localization of selling firms. A survey was performed in 2012 considering 169 virtual stores of SMEs (farms, mills and bottlers) located in all the main Italian olive-growing areas. A data set of 667 references was used to estimate the implicit prices of considered attributes.Findings: – The EVOs sold through virtual stores are highly differentiated on the basis of several quality attributes among which the most important is the certification of origin (protected denominations of origin/protected geographical indication). Therefore the firm location could generate considerable advantages or disadvantages in adopting a B2C EC strategy.Research limitations/implications: – Future researches should develop a comparison between the premium prices and costs associated to each attribute in order to find the best product differentiation strategy. An accurate analysis about the implementation and management costs of EC systems as well as an examination of interactions between online and offline sale channels is needed. It would be useful to compare the manufacturer direct sell business model with other business model.Originality/value: – Few studies applied the hedonic price model to analyse the retail olive oil market. Nevertheless, no studies have analysed the market of EVO sold in virtual shops.

Purpose: Geographical indications (GIs) provide a strong differentiation tool for firms. Whether this statement is confirmed at aggregate level in terms of market independence of different GIs is not tested yet. The purpose of this paper is to provide demand estimates and elasticities (own‐price and substitution) in order to test this hypothesis and verify the differentiation effect of GIs at aggregate level.Design/methodology/approach: The analysis consists of the application of a quadratic almost ideal demand on a four equation system. Estimates are obtained through an iterated version of a generalized method of moments, which corrects for endogeneity determined by expenditure and prices in case of promotional activities.Findings: Estimates prove the existence of a differentiation effect of GIs in terms of magnitude of elasticities and substitution effects. GIs corresponding to higher quality generate lower price sensitiveness and product substitution, contrarily to wine without GI. Controlled origin denomination (DOC) wine demand results are price sensitive and they substitute for wines of different GI. Controlled and guaranteed origin denomination (DOCG) is the most profitable GI. In fact, because of its inelastic demand, DOCG price could be potentially increased, to a certain extent, without having significant effects on volumes consumed.Research limitations/implications: Foreign wine should also be included in the demand system in order to understand the whole Italian wine market. Data concern retail level demand. The whole market, including hotels, restaurants and catering, should be included to offer a wider set of implications.Practical implications: Marketers and producers could use the information provided by the estimates in order to forecast Italian wine demand. Elasticities and substitution effect provide them with a precise measure of consumers' price sensitiveness, which would be beneficial for their pricing strategies.Originality/value: The paper provides, for the first time, estimates of a demand system relative to GI differentiated Italian wine.

Italian consumers׳ preferences regarding dealcoholized wines are measured in terms of alcoholic content and the dealcoholization intensity information on the label. The analysis assumes dealcoholized wine is an imperfect substitute for traditional wines. Dealcoholization level, price, and other wine attributes are simultaneously evaluated by drawing on choice-modeling techniques. The results suggest that alcohol content of wine positively influences consumers׳ preferences and that dealcoholization generates aversion. Consumers tend to buy dealcoholized wine only for a discount proportional to the reduction in alcohol content. The target group for dealcoholized wine is younger, infrequent consumers, label readers, and people with alcohol dependency problems. Policy implications concern the fact that dealcoholized wine should not be labeled or marketed as a wine and that actions aimed at increasing consumer confidence toward this new product should be implemented