The psychology of online shopping success: Insights on social media analytics and customer feedback

Social media analytics (SMA) practices are playing a vital role in improving online store performance by creating insights about customer preferences, trends, and behaviors. Social media analytics (SMA) practices are a critical contributor to boost online store performance by creating insights on customer preferences, trends and behaviors. The effective utilization of such analytics helps online retailers to adjust their marketing strategies, increase customer engagement, and ultimately boost their sales. This study examines the dynamic link between SMA and customer engagement in online retail firms with special focus on the moderating role of customer voice (promotive and prohibitive) in determining the performance outcomes. Specifically, it examines the impact of consumers' promotive and prohibitive voices on the relationship between customer engagement and online store performance. Using a time-lagged study and data obtained from 407 online stores across three survey waves, the findings show there is a strong positive relationship between SMA and customer engagement. In addition, both promotive and prohibitive customer voice are found to positively moderate the engagement-performance relationship, increasing the effect of engagement on operational outcomes. The study concludes with implications and future research directions.