Consumer motivation and site transfer behavior: Weblog analysis for online service

Abstract

Online consumers visit retail websites in two venues: 1) Direct access by input of known URL addresses or 2) indirect access by clicking the links from third party websites. This research is an exploratory investigation on why online consumers access retail websites with each of the distinctive access manners and how it influences purchase decision-making processes: to purchase or to browse. In detail, it is assumed that the website access manners are affected by different web site visit motivations of goal-directed versus exploratory type. Unlike off-line store environments, it is possible to track online consumers' detailed behaviors by looking at the records saved in Web server log files. The present study utilizes the 3,885 clickstream data in Web log files, and attempts to investigate the differences in purchasing related activities between the distinctive access types. In further, we also consider the product involvement level to examine whether the differences between the two groups are affected by the degree of product level involvement. The empirical findings indicate that online consumers with direct access manner tend to display the characteristics of goal-directed shoppers. In comparison, the referred group of customers is associated with exploratory tendencies. The product involvement level is only effective in direct access group.