Understanding Lateral and Vertical Biases in Consumer Attention: An In-Store Ambulatory Eye-Tracking Study

Using in-store ambulatory eye-tracking, the authors investigate the extent to which lateral and vertical biases drive consumers’ attention in a grocery store environment. The data set offers a complete picture of both where the shopper is located and the shopper’s field of view and visual fixations during the trip. The authors address two research questions: First, do shoppers have a higher propensity to pay attention to products on their left or right side as they traverse an aisle (i.e., is the right side the “right” side)? Second, do shoppers tend to pay more attention to products at their eye level (i.e., is eye level “buy level”)? The authors utilize the exogenous variations in the direction by which shoppers traverse an aisle to identify lateral bias. The exogenous variation of shoppers’ eye-level positions is used to identify vertical bias. The authors find that shoppers pay more attention to products on their right side when traversing an aisle. Contrary to many practitioners’ belief, eye level is not “buy level”; rather, the product level that has the greatest propensity to capture shoppers’ attention is approximately 14.7 inches below eye level (which is around chest level).