Online Information-seeking Behavior Contributing to Purchases on EC Sites

Abstract

: With the evolution of technology, the role of online product purchasing and information seeking has become more critical. Although there have been analyses of this process using questionnaires, none of these studies have used actual behavioral data. This study analyzes the information-seeking behavior that contributes to purchasing products on EC sites using users’ access log data captured by a research company. As a result of analyzing 100 pages of the website before visiting the EC site, it finds that it is significant to browse the one’s pages to purchase. The combination of the websites to be browsed is also essential, and it confirms that browsing three types of sites - search site, shopping mall EC site, and the one’s EC site - is significant for purchasing.