Verification of Effect on Next Purchase When Many Vice Category Products are Brought

Abstract The purpose of this article is to verify the effect of previous purchases on later purchases, using shopping path data. We focus on the effect of vice category products bought before. In existing research, the effect of the prior purchase of virtue category products (which are relative necessities) on later purchases, is explained as licensing effect. Based on earlier studies, the purchase of vice category products is also expected to impact later purchase behavior. For example, prior vice category products purchased may impel customers to purchase virtue category products. But the verification result clearly indicated that prior purchase of vice category products did not impel customers to buy virtue category products, rather it indirectly led to a tendency to refrain from further purchases of products.