Gaze Pattern Differences Between Objective and Subjective Search of E-Commerce Web Pages

Both users and retailers benefit from optimizing e-commerce web pages for consumers who freely browse, subjectively search (e.g., “Find a gift for your uncle.”), or objectively search (e.g., “Find the laptop.”) for merchandise online. However, search behavior of ecommerce web pages under these conditions is not well understood. We studied how gaze patterns were modulated by search task on 12 e-commerce web pages. Search for objectively defined targets yielded larger saccade amplitudes than when freely browsing or subjectively searching. Furthermore, users fixated product images more often than product text or navigation regions when searching for particular items. On the other hand, search for subjectively defined gifts led to longer fixation durations of navigation regions, in particular. These findings show that search behavior of e-commerce web pages is influenced by consumer objectives and concurs with classic findings from the scene perception literature about the influences of top-down goals on eye movements.