Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 26, 2025

Applying an eMASS Customization Program as a Research Tool to Evaluate Consumer Benefits
Published on: September 27, 2019
Open e-commerce 1.0, five years of crowdsourced U.S. Amazon purchase histories with user demographics
Alex Berke1, Dan Calacci2,3, Robert Mahari2,4
1MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA. aberke@mit.edu.
Abstract:
This is a first-of-its-kind dataset containing detailed purchase histories from 5027 U.S. Amazon.com consumers, spanning 2018 through 2022, with more than 1.8 million purchases. Consumer spending data are customarily collected through government surveys to produce public datasets and statistics, which serve public agencies and researchers. Companies now collect similar data through consumers' use of digital platforms at rates superseding data collection by public agencies. We published this dataset in an effort towards democratizing access to rich data sources routinely used by companies. The data were crowdsourced through an online survey and shared with participants' informed consent. Data columns include order date, product code, title, price, quantity, and shipping address state. Each purchase history is linked to survey data with information about participants' demographics, lifestyle, and health. We validate the dataset by showing expenditure correlates with public Amazon sales data (Pearson r = 0.978, p < 0.001) and conduct analyses of specific product categories, demonstrating expected seasonal trends and strong relationships to other public datasets.
Related Concept Videos
Cross-Sectional Research
Longitudinal Research
Ogive Graph
Surveys
Data Collection by Survey
Longitudinal Studies

