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Growth in online marketing has been unprecedented, and mainstream shopping is shifting from traditional stores to online shopping channels. However, many aspects of online consumer behavior remain unaddressed. In particular, the effects of gender differences in visual attention on shopping attitudes are a great challenge in online retailers’ attempts to understand consumers’ cognitive processing and strategies. This study was designed to investigate the effects of gender on visual attention to online shopping information and its influence on attitudes about the products displayed. Using an eye-tracking approach, the results identified significant gender differences in visual attention to online shopping information and shopping attitudes about the products presented. Female participants attended visually to most of the online shopping information areas to a greater degree than did males, and their attitudes about products were influenced to some degree by visual attention to the consumer opinion a...

It is widely known that consumers' cognitive styles lead to making online shopping behavior react quite differently to various types of information on the online shopping websites. However, empirical results proving such premise from the perspective of eye-tracking are rare in literature. In this sense, this paper deals with two types of consumers’ cognitive styles- field-dependent and field-independent. Field-dependent users tend to follow other people's opinion, while field-independent users show maverick style of making decisions, trying not to be influenced by others. To add rigor to our empirical results, we analyzed users' eye-movements in response to information on the online shopping websites. Empirical results obtained from eye-tracking analysis revealed very robust and promising results. For a utilitarian product like notebook computer, the field-independent users showed higher TFD (Total Fixation Duration) and FC (Fixation Count) to product description information and product image information than the field-dependent users. For a hedonic product like perfume, field-independent users showed higher TFD and FC to product description and product image information than field-dependent users. As expected, field-dependent users showed higher TFD and FC to consumer review information than field-independent users. In this way, it is quite clear that the physiological information obtained from analysis of the eye-tracking data reveals more reliable and unique description of possible influences that consumers' cognitive styles may have on their online shopping behavior.

Despite a strong shift to mobile shopping trends, many in-depth questions about mobile shoppers' visual behaviors in mobile shopping environments remain unaddressed. This study aims to answer two challenging research questions (RQs): (a) how much does shopping motivation like goal orientation and recreation influence mobile shoppers' visual behavior toward displays of shopping information on a mobile shopping screen and (b) how much of mobile shoppers' visual behavior influences their purchase intention for the products displayed on a mobile shopping screen? An eye-tracking approach is adopted to answer the RQs empirically. The experimental results showed that goal-oriented shoppers paid closer attention to products' information areas to meet their shopping goals. Their purchase intention was positively influenced by their visual attention to the two areas of interest such as product information and consumer opinions. In contrast, recreational shoppers tended to visually fixate on the promotion area, which positively influences their purchase intention. The results contribute to understanding mobile shoppers' visual behaviors and shopping intentions from the perspective of mindset theory.