Cross-visiting Behaviour of Online Consumers Across Retailers’ and Comparison Sites, a Macro-Study

Abstract

Extant academic research provides a comprehensive view of online consumer behaviour on a single website, paying less attention to the integrated environment in which websites operate. Retailers’ products, however, are not only available on their own website, but also through other connected channels such as comparison sites. Our limited knowledge of consumers’ integrated behaviour across the entire market poses difficulties to design effective online strategies. At the same time, practitioners have mainly focused on website performance measures, ignoring the reasons behind the behaviour of consumers. A deeper understanding of consumers who visit different websites or, cross-visit, can inform successful online channel strategies. This macro-level study aims to bridge this gap by investigating how the usage behaviour on retailers’ websites and comparison sites influences each other, using large-scale industry-based data. A new measure of ‘cross-visiting’ behaviour is introduced and examined.