School of Business

Analyzing sequential purchasing behavior and prioritizing brands in loyalty programs

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to develop a novel model to quantify the strength of customer loyalty based on sequential purchasing behaviors within loyalty programs. It also ranks brands to generate a comprehensive ranking list for each customer segment. Design/methodology/approach: This study proposes a network-based model to record customers’ purchasing history, incorporating purchase frequency, time-decay and discount effects. This study also introduces a modified Hyperlink-Induced Topic Search algorithm to rank brands within each customer segment. Findings: This study analyzes the transactional data set of a multi-industry loyalty program to identify future brand choices for each customer segment. Research limitations/implications: The proposed methodology does not consider point redemption or expenses incurred for a specific brand. The methodology also does not assume any specific distribution for purchasing time or include predictive analysis. Practical implications: Loyalty program managers can design marketing strategies based on representative transaction sequence networks from customer segments. They can also identify popular or influential brands. Cross-selling strategies can be developed using information about the brands most likely to be purchased subsequently. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to propose a network-based model to quantify the strength of customer loyalty from sequential purchasing behaviors. This study also introduces a novel methodology for segmenting customers and proposes a modified Hyperlink-Induced Topic Search algorithm to rank brands. © 2025, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Publication Title

Journal of Product and Brand Management

Publication Date

2025

ISSN

1061-0421

DOI

10.1108/JPBM-12-2023-4870

Keywords

brand prioritization, brand recommendation, customer segmentation, hyperlink-induced topic search, loyalty program, sequential purchasing behavior

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