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Shopping bots are an important new innovation which support consumers with the product search and identification stage in e‐shopping. This paper reviews the search facilities offered by shopping bots. A number of shopping bots that include books in their product range, have been visited with a view to analysing their search facilities. Using trial searches for three different best‐selling books, title, author, and keyword search facilities available in a number of bots were further investigated. Finally the output from the search in terms of the number of items, and suppliers identified, and the price, was analysed. The effectiveness of bots does not only depend upon search facilities but also depends upon product coverage, and other added value features such as publisher and consumer reviews. Consumer search behaviour, in general, and the way in which consumers will use shopping bots are fruitful areas for further research.

Understanding the effect of assortment composition on attentional levels is an essential topic for academic researchers and practitioners. This work has important implications when analyzing the influence of shopping frame time and search effort on the relationship between the reaction to assortment composition and visual attention to stock-keeping units (SKUs) pricing.

Two experimental studies through gauze behavior analysis technology (using eye-tracking equipment) analyze the variable's large assortment, visual attention to SKU pricing, search effort and shopping frame time.

The results suggest that, although it increases the search effort, a large assortment decreases the visual attention to SKU pricing. Further, our results indicate a moderating effect associated with mitigating the negative effect by medium-low levels of search effort and a moderating impact of time in this relation.

Marketing professionals can carefully optimize the in-store experience by managing the assortment and variety and by influencing consumers' visual attention to SKU pricing along the journey as part of the experience. Assortment and SKU pricing strategies need to be aligned with consumer journey design.

Our findings contribute to assortment theory and management by detailing the relationship between consumers' reactions to assortment perception and visual attention to SKU pricing in time flow. We reinforce the importance of considering assortment strategies from the consumer perspective and giving reliable information about in-store behavior.

This paper is concerned with the current decision of the European Commission regarding Google’s comparison shopping service (Google Shopping). In 2017, the Commission has fined Google €2.42 billion for abusing its dominant position as a search engine by giving illegal advantage to Google Shopping. Consequently, Google has to stop its illegal conduct. In particular, the decision requires Google to treat rival comparison shopping services and its own service equally. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the decision from a perspective of two-sided markets. Google Shopping is an integrated service of Google Search and acts as an intermediary between companies, offerings products in the internet and people searching for products in the internet. This complies with the typical conditions of a two-sided market. From the perspective of sellers of goods and services in Europe, Google may be seen as a gatekeeper to the potential customers and thus as an essential facility. In the light of the current decision, this paper provides a possible regulation alternative. It is shown that Google Shopping represents a typical club good, so that welfare-optimising rules must be adhered to. In this context, it should be noted that in the current Google Shopping search results, artificial rivalry is created among sellers so as to ensure maximum willingness to pay for a top listing. The solution proposed in this paper entails a summary score list of all sellers of a particular product, for which a turnover-dependent contribution should be required, instead of a reduced score list, where positions are sold by auctions.

This paper uses methods of two-sided markets and public good theory.

It is shown that Google Shopping represents a typical club good, so that welfare-optimising rules must be adhered to. In this context, it should be noted that in the current Google Shopping search results, artificial rivalry is created among sellers so as to ensure maximum willingness to pay for a top listing. The solution proposed in this paper entails a summary score list of all sellers of a particular product, for which a turnover-dependent contribution should be required, instead of a reduced score list, where positions are sold by auctions.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, it is the very first paper about the decision of the European Union (06/2017) concerning Google Shopping.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how shoppers’ expectations regarding the amount of search and disconfirmation of these search expectations affect outcomes of the shopping trip.

A survey of shoppers is used to test the proposed hypotheses.

Survey results indicate that search disconfirmation is conceptually distinct from but related to search effort and search regret. The results show that negative search disconfirmation mediates the relationship between search effort and shopper satisfaction, hedonic and utilitarian shopping value, choice confidence, search regret and negative word-of-mouth intent.

The findings underscore that search effort itself is not negative for shoppers. However, when search effort is perceived as excessive compared to shoppers’ expectations, negative retail outcomes can occur. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Examines the underlying determinants of in‐store information search for a Christmas clothing gift, specifically focusing on gender differences. Two non‐personal (general and specific) and one personal (sales clerk assistance) in‐store information search domains were obtained from the results of a survey of actual consumers carried out shortly after the Christmas season. Consistent with the predictions of the selectivity model, females appeared to comprehensively acquire in‐store information, whereas males appeared to heuristically limit their search to a smaller subset of in‐store information. More specifically, females scored significantly higher than males on indices of both general and specific information search. Females, compared to males, were also found to start Christmas shopping much earlier, purchase more gifts, and embark on a greater number of shopping trips. Other observed gender differences are discussed.

This study aims to identify, within the context of the French fashion industry, the characteristics of multichannel shoppers, that is, consumers who use more than one channel in a single shopping trip. We especially investigate whether consumers' focus on quality versus price affects their multichannel shopping tendency and their flexibilities in their shopping lists (basket flexibility).

We surveyed a representative sample of 400 French shoppers regarding fashion apparel purchasing. We use a logistic regression framework to measure the probability of a shopper becoming a multichannel shopper based on the key constructs and a battery of control variables.

The analysis shows that, in fashion buying, shoppers focused on quality and those with high basket flexibility have a higher probability of becoming multichannel shoppers. The probability becomes even greater when a shopper is both quality oriented and has basket flexibility.

We focus on the fashion apparel market for a deeper understanding of multichannel usage of products with both experience and search features. Future research can investigate other industries for higher generalizability.

Our research provides insights into multichannel fashion companies whose managements aim to effectively manage high-value customers who tend to use more channels when shopping. Specifically, an omnichannel marketing strategy should focus on capturing the quality-oriented and highly basket-flexible segment of consumers.

Our study provides evidence that for products having high experiential as well as search features, quality-oriented and highly flexible shoppers engage more in multichannel shopping. Because these characteristics are related to the long-term value of customers, we provide the link between multichannel marketing and firm profitability in the context of the fashion industry.

With the rapid development of technology, 360° panorama on mobile as a very convenient way to present virtual reality has brought a new shopping experience to consumers. Usually, consumers get product information through virtual annotations in 360° panorama and then make a series of shopping behaviors. The visual design of virtual annotation significantly influences users' online visual search for product information. This study aims to investigate the influence of the visual design of virtual annotation on consumers' shopping experience in the online shopping interface of 360° panorama.

A 2 × 3 between-subject design was planned to help explore whether different display model of annotation (i.e. negative polarity and positive polarity) and different background transparency of annotation (i.e. 0% transparency, 25% transparency and 50% transparency) may affect users' task performance and their subjective evaluations.

(1) Virtual annotations with different background transparency affect user performance, and transparency has better visual search performance. (2) Virtual annotation background display mode may affect the user operation performance; the positive polarity of the virtual annotation is more convenient for the users' visual searching for product information. (3) When the annotation background transparency is opaque or semi-transparent, the negative polarity display is more favorable to the users' visual search. However, this situation is reversed when the annotation background transparency is 25%. (4) Participants preferred the presentation of positive polarity virtual annotations. (5) Regarding the degree of willingness to use and ease of understanding, participants preferred the negative polarity display for 0% background transparency or 50% background transparency. However, the opposite result was obtained for 25% background transparency.

The findings generated from the research can be a good reference for the development of virtual annotation visual design for mobile shopping applications.

1. Virtual annotation background transparency and background display mode are two essential attributes of 360° panoramas.

2. This study examined how virtual annotation background transparency and background display mode influence user performance and experience.

3. It is recommended to use a translucent or opaque annotation background with a negative polarity display.

4. Virtual annotation presentation with 25% background transparency facilitates consumer searching and comparison of product information.

5. Users prefer a positive polarity annotation display.

Virtual annotation background transparency and background display mode are two essential attributes of 360° panoramas.

This study examined how virtual annotation background transparency and background display mode influence user performance and experience.

It is recommended to use a translucent or opaque annotation background with a negative polarity display.

Virtual annotation presentation with 25% background transparency facilitates consumer searching and comparison of product information.

Users prefer a positive polarity annotation display.

The first stage in the consumer buying process is generally recognised to be that of the information search. This stage is recognised to be an important phase during which promotional messages should reach the intending consumer. Like many other stages of the buying process information seeking becomes more structured and constrained in the e‐shopping environment. In particular, the ability to collect product information and make comparisons between the different product offerings from different providers, possibly across national and currency boundaries, is often viewed as one of the main competitive challenges of e‐shopping. This article first visits models of the consumer buying process. It then explores the two approaches to information seeking, browsing and directed searching, and then proceeds to identify the tools that support these approaches. The complexity of variety in these tools is explored, in order to set the scene for understanding the complexity of the options with which the shopper is confronted.

This study examines the influence of demographic variables and dimensions of motivational factors of two types of consumer Web use: percentage of weekly Web surfing time spent searching for product and service‐related information and online shopping and transactions. It combines data from two sources: a self‐administered survey of 59 undergraduates in an introductory communication course at Cornell University; and a mail/Web survey of 59 New York State residents who had reported subscribing to an online service in a previous mail survey. We found distinctively different patterns of relationships among demographics and motivational factors for the two types of dependent variables. Most importantly, transactional privacy concerns were found to be negatively related to percentage of time spent on product searches and online shopping, while economic motivations had a positive influence. In addition, online shopping was found to be predicted by information motivations, interactive control motivations, and socialization motivations. Implications for Web‐based commerce and advertising are discussed.