Abstract
Online retailers are challenged to present their products in an appropriate way to attract customers’ attention. To test the impact of product presentation features on customers’ visual attention, webcam eye tracking might be an alternative to infrared eye tracking, especially in situations where face-to-face contact is difficult. The aim of this study was to examine whether webcam eye tracking is suitable for investigating the influence of certain exogenous factors on customers’ visual attention when visiting online clothing shops. For this purpose, screenshots of two websites of two well-known online clothing retailers were used as stimuli. Linear regression analyses were conducted to determine the influence of the spatial position and the presence of a human model on the percentage of participants visiting a product depiction. The results show that products presented by human models and located in the upper middle area of a website were visited by more participants. From this, we were able to derive recommendations for optimising product presentation in online clothing shops. Our results fit well with those of other studies on visual attention conducted with infrared eye tracking, suggesting that webcam eye tracking could be an alternative to infrared eye tracking, at least for similar research questions.
Highlights
Trading of goods and services via the internet is growing continuously
Our results fit well with those of other studies on visual attention conducted with infrared eye tracking, suggesting that webcam eye tracking could be an alternative to infrared eye tracking, at least for similar research questions
This study shows that webcam eye tracking could be an alternative to eye tracking studies conducted with infrared eye trackers for investigating the impact of specific exogenous factors on visual attention in an online shopping environment
Summary
Trading of goods and services via the internet is growing continuously. In Europe, B2C e-commerce turnover has increased from EUR 279.3 billion in 2013 to EUR 636 billion in 2019 [1]. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced this this trend, by increasing the frequency of online purchases and by affecting the structure of online customers, with a growing proportion of older people using the internet for purchases as well [2]. Due to the pandemicrelated restrictions on access to shops, stationary retailers started selling their products online or extended their existing online business [3], and many of them intend to expand their online activities in the future. This puts these companies in direct competition with pure online retailers, who have years of experience with web presence and are constantly developing their online shops [4]. In order to survive this strong competition, it is necessary to understand the behaviour of online customers and to use this knowledge to improve the attractiveness of one’s own online shop [5]
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