Discovering shopping visitors’ behavior and preferences using geo-tagged social photos: a case study of Los Angeles City

Abstract

Understanding shopping visitors’ behavior and preferences is important for tourism and retail business. This paper introduces geo-tagged photos on a social media platform as an additional data resource to study spatiotemporal behavior and preferences of visitors at shopping locations. We propose a novel framework that uses geo-tagged photos within an urban region for identifying shopping locations and then discovering spatiotemporal behavior and preferences of visitors at the identified shopping spots. We present a case study of Los Angeles City, California, USA. The analysis results give insights into spatiotemporal behavior and preferences of shopping visitors in different groups of shopping locations such as shopping mall, plaza, market and so on. The results also reveal the preferences of shopping visitors in groups of shopping locations classified by selling products. In addition, the preferences between domestic and international shopping visitors are also uncovered. The proposed approach and findings of the case study are beneficial to tourism managers and the managers of shopping places, especially those in Los Angeles, in understanding spatiotemporal behavior and preferences of shopping visitors. This can help to improve the activities of promoting and attracting tourists to visit local shopping locations.