When Logins Go Social: Effects on Purchase Behaviors and Targeted Responses in Online Markets

Information on consumer registration behaviors and profiles is a valuable strategic resource for online retailers, enabling them to create switching costs and fine-tune marketing communication efforts. Yet, online registration requirements often induce cart abandonment, generate inaccurate consumer information, and invade personal privacy. This study investigates consumers’ choice of registration options (e.g., no-membership, guest-membership, regular-membership, and social-membership) and their implications on a firm’s profitability and retargeting effectiveness. Particular attention is devoted to the role and value of platform-based online social login structures in influencing consumers’ purchase propensities, cart abandonment behaviors, and retargeting ad responses in online marketplaces. The findings indicate that social login adoption substantially increases profitability and decreases consumers’ proclivity to abandon shopping carts. Interestingly, after adoption consumers’ propensities for cross-retailer browsing and purchasing increased. We also find that the effects of social login systems on sales, cart abandonment, and cross-retailer shopping behaviors varied in consonance with consumers’ previous membership statuses. For example, for cross-retailer browsing, consumers who switch from regular membership show relatively smaller change compared to consumers who changed from non-membership, whereas those who change categories from guest membership even exhibit a significantly reduced tendency to conduct searches across retailers. Finally, the findings suggest that SNS users react negatively to Facebook-based retargeting ads, but no such responses were observed for messaging app or portal users.