If you’ve bought a book on Amazon you’ve probably glanced at the review by Amazonistas. If you’ve bought from the eBayistas you’ve no doubt scanned their ranking. This real-time definition of reputation by the customer will eventually become one of the dominant drivers of sales for us all. The convergence of reputation management and eCommerce is inevitable.

Lee Gomes explores this in his Monday column in the WSJ – sorry, subscribers only – but it’s worth every cent… seems the economists have drawn a link between not only reputation and the ability of a seller to sell, but also the price they can command…

But not only is reputation important, Prof. Cabral found, but it affects the prices sellers can charge and the amount of merchandise they can move.