A study conducted by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev found that consumers make better purchasing decisions when using a personal computer (PC) than on a smartphone or mobile device. This was the first study to differentiate between screen sizes and information reduction and its effect on the consumer.
Shopping websites created for mobile display less information on the results page and require the consumer to do more digging to find what they want. Sites designed for PCs display all information upfront.
In 2018, 47% of all traffic to online stores and 36% of sales were on mobile devices. On Black Friday — the first day of Christmas shopping in the U.S. — in 2018, two billion dollars of online sales were from mobile devices.
E-commerce providers use responsive web design to create a mobile-friendly version out of their PC site, making it easier to navigate the website on mobile phones. But this also reduces the amount of information displayed on a page. This causes consumers to make decisions that are less consistent with their preferences.
During the study, the team conducted two experiments in their Mobile Behavior Lab. Participants were asked to choose a fictitious hotel room among 11 room options. They viewed the information from either a PC or a mobile device. All information was available on both displays, but it was more readily available on the PC.
The team found that when the same information was presented on both screens up front, participants made equally accurate decisions. When participants had to make decisions on a mobile device, the decisions were less accurate and less aligned with their preferences because of the mobile site, not the device itself.
The study argues that it is better for the consumer to present the PC webpage on all devices. This switch would make it more difficult to view sites on mobile, but it would ultimately allow consumers to make more accurate decisions.
This study will be presented at the International Conference on Information Systems.
