Order Effect and Vendor Inspection in Online Comparison Shopping

In the context of online comparison shopping, the phenomenon of order effect and its impact has profound theoretical and practical significance, as many search engines and shopping portals offer paid placement and paid inclusion in search results. In this study, we investigate how order effects and other market competitive factors work together to attract consumers’ attention to online vendors, which is manifested by the time spent on collecting more vendor information, and the probability of a vendor being included in a consumer’s consideration set. We found that the effect of serial position of a vendor in a list is mediated by consumers’ attention which in turn affects the probability of the vendor being accepted.