Are Repeat Buyers in Cryptomarkets Loyal Customers? Repeat Business Between Dyads of Cryptomarket Vendors and Users

Abstract

Organizations involved in the sale of illicit products and services have been described as small, ephemeral, and local rather than global. Given their limited size, such organizations are often unable to attract large pools of customers, but it has been noted that organizations that manage to build a small but loyal customer base are likely to be more secure and to incur fewer risks of arrest and victimization. There has been little previous research into the loyalty of repeat buyers on Internet markets but a new technological innovation, cryptomarkets, makes it now more possible to track transactions between vendors and their customers. This article looks at the level of loyalty of cryptomarket repeat buyers by tracking their purchases over time. We find that, on average, customers make 60% of their purchases from the same vendor and that providing increased amounts of information to customers increases the loyalty of cryptomarket vendors’ customer base.