Class Year

2026

Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date of Creation

Fall 2025

Department 1

Management

Abstract

This paper investigates key drivers of consumer behavior within Brazil's emerging e-commerce market by analyzing the Olist Public Dataset. As technology increasingly allows for data-driven marketing strategies, understanding the nuanced behaviors of diverse consumer bases, especially in an emerging market like Brazil, is critical for firm success. This study tests three hypotheses regarding the relationship between positive customer reviews and e-loyalty, the fluctuation of seasonal sales during holiday periods, and the influence of geographic urbanization on product preferences. Utilizing regression analyses on 100,000 orders from 2016 to 2018, the results showed no significant relationship between positive review scores and repeat purchasing behavior, revealing an overwhelmingly transactional market where 99.4% of customers are one-time buyers. Second, the study found no significant difference in the proportion of hedonic purchases during holiday seasons compared to non-holiday months. Finally, contrary to expectations, urbanization was a significant negative predictor of hedonic consumption (B = -0.002, p = .012), explaining 22.5% of the variance in the hedonic ratio (F (1, 25) = 7.265, p = .012). This suggests rural consumers rely more on e-commerce to access luxury goods unavailable in their local physical markets. Further suggestions are made, including future studies’ direction, and actionable insights for managers based on the findings.

Comments

This work was written for MGT 405: Advanced Statistical Methods for Business. 

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