Clickstream
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Clickstream is the recording of what a computer user clicks on while web browsing.
As the user clicks on a link on a web page, the action is logged inside the web server, as well as possibly the web browser, routers, proxy servers, and ad servers.
Since the business world is quickly evolving into a state of e-commerce, analyzing the data of clients that visit a company website is becoming a necessity in order to remain competitive. This analysis can be used to generate two findings for the company, the first being an analysis of a user’s clickstream while using a website to reveal usage patterns, which in turn gives a heightened understanding of customer behaviour. This use of the analysis creates a user profile that aids in understanding the types of people that visit a company’s website. As discussed in Van den Poel & Buckinx (2005), clickstream analysis can be used to predict whether a customer is likely to purchase from an e-commerce website. Clickstream analysis can also be used to improve customer satisfaction with the website and with the company itself. Both of these uses generate a huge business advantage.
With the growing corporate knowledge of the importance of clickstreams, the way that they are being monitored and used to build Business Intelligence is evolving. Data mining, column-oriented DBMS, and integrated OLAP systems are being used in conjunction with clickstreams to better record and analyze this data.
Clickstreams can also be used to allow the user to see where they have been and allow them to easily return to a page they have already visited.
[edit] References
- Van den Poel Dirk, Wouter Buckinx (2005), “Predicting Online-Purchasing Behavior”, European Journal of Operational Research, 166 (2), 2005, 557-575.
