Product Discovery and Consumer Search Routes: Evidence from a Mobile App

46 Pages Posted: 19 May 2023 Last revised: 4 Jul 2023

See all articles by Xingyue (Luna) Zhang

Xingyue (Luna) Zhang

University of Washington Tacoma

Raluca Ursu

New York University - Stern School of Business

Elisabeth Honka

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Anderson School of Management

Yuliang Oliver Yao

University of Delaware

Date Written: July 3, 2023

Abstract

When shopping online, consumers can reach a product detail page via multiple routes: by going through a category page (e.g., women's shoes), by directly typing the product name in the search field (e.g., Nike Women's Air Max), by going through a sales page (e.g., the shoes sale page), etc. Previous research has largely ignored how consumers choose between these routes and how, in turn, these routes affect which products consumers subsequently discover, search, and potentially purchase. Our novel panel data from a mobile shopping app contain detailed information on consumer browsing for sandals over a time period of six months. To capture consumers' decisions of not only what to search and buy, but also of the route through which to discover products, we build on the framework of Greminger (2021, 2022) and estimate a model of discovery, search, and purchase. We use our model to quantify preferences, discovery costs, and search costs, and show that product search costs are four times larger than product discovery costs. Via counterfactuals, we quantify the value of a search route to the platform and examine how app design changes influence product discovery and consumer purchase behavior.

Keywords: Consumer Search, Awareness, Product Discovery, Mobile Commerce, Apparel Industry

JEL Classification: D83, L81, M31

Suggested Citation

Zhang, Xingyue and Ursu, Raluca and Honka, Elisabeth and Yao, Yuliang, Product Discovery and Consumer Search Routes: Evidence from a Mobile App (July 3, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4444774 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4444774

Xingyue Zhang

University of Washington Tacoma ( email )

1900 Commerce St
Tacoma, WA 18015
United States

Raluca Ursu

New York University - Stern School of Business ( email )

Tisch Hall
40 W 4 St.
New York, NY NA 10012
United States

Elisabeth Honka (Contact Author)

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Anderson School of Management ( email )

110 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481
United States

Yuliang Yao

University of Delaware ( email )

Newark, DE 19711
United States

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