Comparison of Inter-Product Network Structure Between Physical Stores and E-Commerce Site

Abstract

With the rapid growth of electronic commerce (EC) and direct-to-consumer, retailers, in particular, are required to improve customer experience by promoting online-merges-with-offline (OMO) strategies. In this study, we constructed an inter-product network in brick-and-mortar stores and EC by defining the relationship between products based on the purchase-history data of consumer electronics stores and compared the structure of the network. This study aims to understand customers’ purchasing behavior in both channels and discover knowledge useful for OMO measures. Specifically, we visualize the connection between products using the social network analysis method with the help of the research result that defines the similarity between products based on customer preferences from ID-POS data. The results suggest a difference in the network structure between products formed in physical and e-commerce stores.