Multicategory purchase behavior: basket choice, shopping frequency, and promotional analysis

Yang Pan; Gary Russell; Thomas S. Gruca; Chenxing Li

doi:10.1016/j.jretai.2025.08.002

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Multicategory purchase behavior: basket choice, shopping frequency, and promotional analysis

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Multicategory purchase behavior: basket choice, shopping frequency, and promotional analysis

Yang Pan, Gary Russell, Thomas S. Gruca and Chenxing Li

Journal of retailing

08/2025

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2025.08.002

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Abstract

This research introduces a new tool for analyzing both what customers buy and how often they shop. Unlike traditional models that focus only on in-store purchases, the MVL-Poisson Model captures shopping frequency, basket composition, and consumer response to prices and promotions. It segments customers by preferences and visit-frequency, reveals cross-category demand relationships, and highlights how promotions influence not just purchases but also store visits. It is computationally practical and can be implemented with standard retail data and analytics software. In an application to convenience store data, the model had high predictive accuracy and generated insights aligned with managerial intuition. We found that shoppers with similar preferences may visit at very different rates—a critical finding for targeting promotions effectively. Focusing only on in-store behavior underestimates the impact of promotions, as promotions also drive store traffic. Using insights on consumer preferences and cross-category relationships, we show how our model can be used to create optimal bundle promotions customized to particular segments.

Finite mixture Poisson model

Market basket analysis

Multivariate logistic model

Shopping frequency

Details

Title: Subtitle: Multicategory purchase behavior: basket choice, shopping frequency, and promotional analysis
Creators: Yang Pan - McMaster University
Gary Russell - University of Iowa, Tippie College of Business, S350 Pappajohn Business Building, Iowa City, IA 52242-1994, United States
Thomas S. Gruca - University of Iowa, Tippie College of Business, S356 Pappajohn Business Building, Iowa City, IA 52242-1994, United States
Chenxing Li - Hunan University
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of retailing
DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2025.08.002
ISSN: 0022-4359
Publisher: Elsevier Inc
Language: English
Electronic publication date: 08/2025
Academic Unit: Marketing
Record Identifier: 9984949231102771

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