Effect of user-generated content on website stickiness

Abstract

Website stickiness, that is visit duration, is a key performance metric for website managers. Longer visit durations can enhance user involvement and give users more time to complete purchase transactions. Furthermore, exposure to advertising is more likely with longer visit durations. By analyzing clickstream data, we investigate which factors, especially user-generated social-shopping features, are significant for predicting visit duration within social shopping communities (SSCs).SSCs evolve from an integration of social networking and online shopping. Both are currently experiencing high growth-rates in consumer popularity. For example, polyvore.com presently attracts more than 13 million unique visitors per month. Apart from direct-shopping features in shopbots, e.g., search field and search filters, SSCs additionally offer user-generated social-shopping features. These include recommendation lists, ratings, styles (i.e., assortments arranged by users), tags, and user profiles. Purchases can be made by following a link to a participating online shop ('click-out').Our regression model includes 2.91 million visiting sessions and shows that user-generated social-shopping features exert a significant impact on visit duration. The more lists, styles, tags, and user profiles used, the longer the duration. Thus, these features seem to enhance site stickiness and browsing. As assumed, direct-shopping features, and click-outs also exert a positive impact. We also found that community members stay more briefly on the SSC than ordinary users. This implies that community members could benefit from learning effects. If a visit occurs on the weekend, the duration is greater than during the week. Both the academic and managerial implications are considered.