“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 the display of other products in same visual field affects consumer's attention. Drawing from Biased Competition Model and Gestalt Principles, current seeks to examine effect distracting products' similarity proximity on focal goal-oriented online shopping episode. Specifically, Study 1 (n = 38), using eye-tracking, we show that consumers allocate most attention when they are both categorically similar spatially near product. We replicate this finding 2 211) results additionally suggest under such distraction, less likely accurately identify Theoretical managerial implications discussed.