Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Predicting Online Purchasing Behavior

Contents:

Author Info

  • W.R BUCKINX
  • D. VAN DEN POEL

    ()

Abstract

This empirical study investigates the contribution of different types of predictors to the purchasing behaviour at an online store. We use logit modelling to predict whether or not a purchase is made during the next visit to the website using both forward and backward variable-selection techniques, as well as Furnival and Wilson’s global score search algorithm to find the best subset of predictors. We contribute to the literature by using variables from four different categories in predicting online-purchasing behaviour: (1) general clickstream behaviour at the level of the visit, (2) more detailed clickstream information, (3) customer demographics, and (4) historical purchase behaviour. The results show that predictors from all four categories are retained in the final (best subset) solution indicating that clickstream behaviour is important when determining the tendency to buy. We clearly indicate the contribution in predictive power of variables that were never used before in online purchasing studies. Detailed clickstream variables are the most important ones in classifying customers according to their online purchase behaviour. In doing so, we are able to highlight the advantage of e-commerce retailers of being able to capture an elaborate list of customer information.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www.FEB.UGent.be/nl/Ondz/wp/Papers/wp_03_195.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration in its series Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium with number 03/195.

as in new window
Length: 49 pages
Date of creation: Sep 2003
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:rug:rugwps:03/195

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Hoveniersberg 4, B-9000 Gent
Phone: ++ 32 (0) 9 264 34 61
Fax: ++ 32 (0) 9 264 35 92
Web page: http://www.feb.ugent.be/
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords: Marketing; Forecasting; E-commerce; Classification; Clickstream data; Customer Relationship Management;

Other versions of this item:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Viaene, Stijn & Baesens, Bart & Van den Poel, D & Vanthienen, Jan & Dedene, Guido, 2001. "Bayesian neural network learning for repeat purchase modelling in direct marketing," Open Access publications from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven urn:hdl:123456789/102012, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
  2. Buckinx, Wouter & Van den Poel, Dirk, 2005. "Customer base analysis: partial defection of behaviourally loyal clients in a non-contractual FMCG retail setting," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 164(1), pages 252-268, July.
  3. B. Baesens & G. Verstraeten & D. Van Den Poel & M. Egmont-Petersen & P. Van Kenhove & J. Vanthienen, 2002. "Bayesian Network Classifiers for Identifying the Slope of the Customer - Lifecycle of Long-Life Customers," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 02/154, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
  4. Wu, Couchen & Chen, Hsiu-Li, 2000. "Counting your customers: Compounding customer's in-store decisions, interpurchase time and repurchasing behavior," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 109-119, November.
  5. Füsun Gönül & Meng Ze Shi, 1998. "Optimal Mailing of Catalogs: A New Methodology Using Estimable Structural Dynamic Programming Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(9), pages 1249-1262, September.
  6. Van den Poel, Dirk & Leunis, Joseph, 1999. "Consumer Acceptance of the Internet as a Channel of Distribution," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 249-256, July.
  7. D. Van Den Poel & B. Larivière, 2003. "Customer Attrition Analysis For Financial Services Using Proportional Hazard Models," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 03/164, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
  8. Gerald Häubl & Valerie Trifts, 2000. "Consumer Decision Making in Online Shopping Environments: The Effects of Interactive Decision Aids," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 4-21, May.
  9. David C. Schmittlein & Robert A. Peterson, 1994. "Customer Base Analysis: An Industrial Purchase Process Application," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(1), pages 41-67.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. P. Baecke & D. Van Den Poel, 2010. "Improving purchasing behavior predictions by data augmentation with situational variables," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 10/658, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
  2. Tang, Wei & Mokhtarian, Patricia L, 2009. "Accounting for Taste Heterogeneity in Purchase Channel Intention Modeling: An Example from Northern California for Book Purchases," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt9mg5s5g8, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
  3. Cao, XinYu & Mokhtarian, Patricia L, 2005. "The Intended and Actual Adoption of Online Purchasing: A Brief Review of Recent Literature," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt095934s0, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
  4. J. D’Haen & D. Van Den Poel & D. Thorleuchter, 2012. "Predicting Customer Profitability During Acquisition: Finding the Optimal Combination of Data Source and Data Mining Technique," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 12/818, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
  5. M. Ballings & D. Van Den Poel, 2012. "The Relevant Length of Customer Event History for Churn Prediction: How long is long enough?," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 12/804, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
  6. Reimer, Kerstin & Albers, Sönke, 2011. "Modeling Repeat Purchases in the Internet when RFM Captures Past Influence of Marketing," EconStor Preprints 50730, ZBW - German National Library of Economics.
  7. V. L. Miguéis & D. Van Den Poel & A.S. Camanho & J. Falcao E Cunha, 2012. "Modeling Partial Customer Churn: On the Value of First Product-Category Purchase Sequences," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 12/790, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
  8. D. Thorleuchter & D. Van Den Poel & A. Prinzie, 2011. "Analyzing existing customers’ websites to improve the customer acquisition process as well as the profitability prediction in B-to-B marketing," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 11/733, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.

Lists

This item is featured on the following reading lists or Wikipedia pages:
  1. Clickstream in Wikipedia (Portuguese)
  2. Clickstream in Wikipedia (English)

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rug:rugwps:03/195

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Nathalie Verhaeghe).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.