
Deep into the Funnel? Predicting Online Conversion Using Search Diversity
The conversion funnel is a model describing the stages consumers go through in their journey towards a purchase. A large body of literature has focused on using observable search patterns to identify consumers’ hidden purchasing stages and to estimate their likelihood of conversion. We add to this literature by using the diversity of the searches that a customer engages in while browsing an e-commerce website as a means of estimating conversion likelihood. We develop novel me