Designing product listing pages—Effects on sales and users’ cognitive workload

Product listing pages, where information on multiple products are displayed, represent a vital point of an E-commerce website on which consumer decisions are made. Prior research has shown that the design of product listing pages has an impact on users’ performance and their recall of brand names. The aim of this study was to examine effects of presentation on cognitive load and consumer decisions. An online study was conducted comparing presentation type (matrix versus list presentation). List presentation was associated with lower cognitive load and more economic product selections. Eye-tracking data from an additional laboratory experiment suggest that list presentation triggers comparison processes which could account for the differences found.