Order or disorder? The impact of product display on consumer purchase intention

Existing literature suggests that disordered displays of in-store products may have mixed effects. Compared to in-store displays, products in online pictorial advertisements place greater emphasis on visual elements to highlight product traits. In practice, both ordered and disordered product displays are commonly used in social media advertisements. However, how do consumers perceive these different visual presentations? Drawing on Spatial Metaphor Theory, we conducted a series of studies, including an eye-tracking experiment, a field experiment, and three scenario studies. Our findings indicate that disordered (vs. ordered) displays can enhance consumers’ perceived advertising vividness and brand innovativeness, thereby increasing purchase intentions. This effect diminishes under conditions of high cognitive load, suggesting that consumers may be too overwhelmed to interpret the spatial signals conveyed by disordered displays. This research aims to offer concrete guidance for online advertising presentations and provide insights into the optimal timing and target consumer segments for such advertising campaigns.