Price Comparison Making as a Visual Process
(A2024-119413)

AUTHORS

Gilles Laurent, ESSEC Business School; Marc Vanhuele, HEC Paris; Madhav Arora, ESSEC Business School

ABSTRACT

Every day, consumers compare prices in stores or on their mobile and computer screens. To understand the dynamics of the comparison process, we analyze the history of information intake by the consumer, as revealed by recording eye movements. Because traditional metrics alone are not enough, we propose to complement them by better dynamic alternative measures: dwells, transfers between dwells, timing of these transfers, etc. Using the example of six-digit real estate prices, we find that the process of price comparison making is fairly efficient. Consumers mainly consider relevant information and mostly ignore irrelevant information. The process adapts itself to the characteristics of the price pair to be compared. This adaptation occurs in real time, as a function of already acquired information.