Social commerce and consumer search behavior: An eye-tracking study

Following the increasing popularity of social commerce sites, this study investigates the information sources and forms that affect consumers in their decision-making process. Building on the theoretical underpinnings of uses and gratifications and dual-process theories, we distinguish between marketer and user generated content, and differentiate formats into informational and normative. Using an eyetracking approach on a popular social commerce site with a sample of 23 participants, we find significant differences in the types and format of information consumed for selected versus eliminated products. Specifically, we looked at engagement, cognitive processing, and observation of consumers, since they reveal information about the mental and processing mechanisms during decision making. We find that consumers present a number of differences in terms of these measures among the different types of content, and with respect to selected versus eliminated products. We conclude the paper summarizing the findings and drawing theoretical and practical implications.

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