Christian Alexander Hildebrand

This research examines how variations in a product display affect consumers’ choice of more novel product alternatives. We integrate prior work on learning behavior and assortment presentation and propose that an unstructured display format (i.e., via a random arrangement of the product assortment or by presenting familiar products in the non-foveal area of search) provokes greater exploratory search behavior of consumers which increases their (objective) product knowledge and makes them ultimately more likely to choose a novel product alternative. We provide large-scale evidence for this theorizing across various field and lab settings. These findings have important implications for research on exploratory product search and the effective design of product assortments―from both a retail and consumer welfare perspective.