This article analyses the methods of attracting customers to retail websites and then satisfying their needs.  Porter’s value chain is adapted to the online retail environment to create a model termed “the click chain”, which analyses how users, termed “clicks”, come to a website identifying a variety of sources. The model builds on the ability to identify the source and associated costs of such clicks and measures their behaviour once at the website.  In doing so it highlights the variety of methods which can be employed to attract visitors, distinguishing between paid clicks, which involve payment to a third party, and free clicks, which do not.

Practical advice is given to e-commerce managers, including the key issues in measuring the sources and behaviour of clicks, the importance of increasing free clicks and the crucial role of loyalty.