The Version Effect of Apps and Operating Systems in Mobile Commerce

Abstract

Using a unique large-scale clickstream data set from a mobile commerce retailer, we examine the effect of the mobile shopping app and mobile operating system versions on consumer search and purchase behaviors in mobile commerce. We find that the consumers with an up-to-date shopping app or mobile operating system (but not both) compared to previous versions conduct more searches in terms of increased product page views and time spent on product pages, which in turn results in higher consumer purchase probability. Surprisingly, the consumers with both an up-to-date shopping app and mobile operating system have reduced search activities and lower purchase probabilities. Our results show that the mobile commerce environment affects the consumer shopping process in a non-linear fashion and indicate that there exists a "sweet spot" with the right level of smoothness in the mobile shopping environment. Our computations show that when compared to the baseline of using previous versions of both, using an up-to-date mobile shopping app alone increases consumer search activities by 336 more product pages or 1,975 more seconds spent, and using an up-to-date mobile operating system alone increases consumer search activities by 976 more product pages or 7,258 more seconds spent. However, using both an up-to-date mobile shopping app and mobile operating system only increases consumer search activities by 270 more product pages or 1,569 more seconds, compared to the baseline. One more product page viewed increases the average consumer purchase probability by 4.38%, and one more second spent increases the average consumer purchase probability by 1.35%. These results suggest that a smooth shopping environment encourages consumers to search more and make purchases, but when the mobile shopping environment becomes so smooth that customers can find targeted products too quickly without spending much time in browsing, the consumers will not search as much and have lower purchase probabilities.

Keywords: Mobile Commerce, Mobile Shopping App, Mobile Operating System, Consumer Behavior