Work

Click‐Click‐Add – Product Search Strategies in Online Shopping

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT People shopping online often abandon their shopping sessions because they feel overwhelmed or insufficiently supported during product searches. We instructed 31 participants to perform two goal‐directed product searches online, simulating real‐world scenarios for two product types: search products (laptops) and experience products (jackets). Through observation and think‐aloud protocols, we captured user behavior across browser tabs and online resources, enabling us to develop a novel annotation scheme for product search that captures resources used, views seen, and actions taken. Qualitative analysis of these annotated sessions revealed nine distinct product search strategies, which participants often combined and applied at different stages of their search sessions. For each strategy, we describe similarities and differences between search and experience products and identify common strategy combinations across product types. Finally, by mapping these findings to established information‐seeking models, we offer insights that can inform the design of more effective and supportive e‐commerce platforms.

Source: Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology

DOI: 10.1002/pra2.1283

Authors: Kevin Schott, Andrea Papenmeier, Daniel Hienert, Dagmar Kern

Institutions: GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, University of Twente

Language: English

Topic: Information Retrieval and Search Behavior

Subfield: Information Systems

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Award: VACOS 2 Natürlichsprachliche und dialogorientierte Unterstützung bei der Objektsuche