“Now You See Me”: The Attention-Grabbing Effect of Product Similarity and Proximity in Online Shopping

While past research has extensively investigated how a specific product attracts attention, little is known about how the display of other products in the same visual field affects the consumer's attention. Drawing from the Biased Competition Model and the Gestalt Principles, the current research seeks to examine the effect of distracting products' similarity and proximity on a focal product in a goal-oriented online shopping episode. Specifically, in Study 1 (n = 38), using eye-tracking, we show that consumers allocate the most visual attention to distracting products when they are both categorically similar and spatially near the focal product. We replicate this finding in Study 2 (n = 211) and results additionally suggest that under such distraction, consumers are less likely to accurately identify the focal product. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. •Consumers are visually distracted by other products in a goal-directed shopping task.•Similar products attracted the most visual attention when they are placed close to the focal product.•A higher distraction leads to a lower product identification accuracy.