Understanding online shopping and offline mobility behavior in urban area from the view of multilayer networks

Abstract

The interactive nature of the Internet offers many opportunities to increase the efficiency of online shopping by improving availability of product information, enabling direct multi-attribute comparisons, and reducing buyer search costs. A great body of research focuses on how consumers shop online or why and how online shopping impacts urban development, but the understanding of mutual influence between online and offline behavior of consumers remains somewhat underserved. This paper bridges that gap by quantifying the relationship between consumers' online shopping and offline mobility behavior. The results of the study give insights to further understand human behavior from both a cyber and real world point of view, which may help to place location based targeted advertisements, and plan commercial & retail centers in urban areas.