What to compare? Towards understanding user sessions on price comparison platforms

Abstract

E-commerce and online shopping have become integral to the lives of many, with various user behavior types historically identified. Beyond deciding what to buy, determining where to make a purchase has led to the importance of price comparison platforms. However, user behavior on these platforms remains underexplored. Furthermore, web analytics often struggle with tracking users over time and deriving meaningful user types from data. This paper addresses these gaps by defining session types through the analysis and clustering of user logs from a major price comparison platform. The study identifies six distinct session clusters: quick peek, major purchase, constraint-based browsing, knowledge seeking, search and browse and heavy browsing. These findings are intended to inform the design and development of a conversational recommender system (CRS). Often, CRS development occurs without adequate consideration of the existing system into which it will be integrated. The study’s findings, derived from both quantitative analysis and expert interviews, provide valuable contributions, including identified session clusters, their interpretation and indicators on which users might benefit from a CRS on these platforms.