Using Eye Tracking Approach in Analyzing Social Network Site Area of Interest for Consumers’ Decision Making in Social Commerce

The growing popularity of social network site (SNS) in social commerce (s-commerce) has intensified interest in understanding consumers decision making based on the SNS seller generated content (SGC) and user generated content (UGC). This study examines consumers’ decision making while doing online shopping by analyzing both SNS’s seller-user generated content on SNS utilizing eye tracking approach. Based on eye tracking experimental with 50 participants, gaze map in term of fixation time were collected and analyzed to measure the order of identified Area of interest (AOI) by which consumer viewed and heat map to measure the consumer intensity when looking at the identified AOIs. The results identify that SCG is most important AOI compare to UGC and that product image and description receive the greatest attention from consumers when making decision. Furthermore, seller information serves as a key entry point for SNS-based commerce based on fixation time. The analysis result shows that there is no significant influence of AOIs order based on consumers’ viewed on the intensity which consumers look at the AOIs. The comparison between Facebook and Instagram reveals some substantial differences in mean between AOIs based on fixation time and intensity. The findings suggest several AOIs should be addressed and emphasized for sellers and companies who interested in utilizing SNS for their s-commerce strategy