**4. Conclusions**

Cumulatively, when examining price conscious consumers' purchase likelihood and visual attention behavior, several patterns emerge. First, price conscious consumers typically pay less visual attention to price than other non-price information, such as plant type, production method, and origin. Compared to non-price conscious consumers, price conscious consumers spend less time on the price attribute and less time evaluating the products (in general). This may indicate that they are faster decision makers or have preconceived reference points for the various attributes that improve their speed of decision making. Second, for price conscious consumers, greater visual attention to product price information leads to a lesser purchase likelihood. As suggested by Chen et al. [29], price sensitive consumers generally spend more time visually attending to the price attribute. Our results further refine their conclusion by demonstrating that longer fixations on the price information increases price conscious consumers' price sensitivity and, thus, reduces their likelihood to buy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to explore how price conscious consumers perceive and react to prices differently from non-price conscious consumers. The extent to which price conscious consumers consider the price attribute of products when shopping is important from the consumer welfare perspective.

A third pattern is that the relationship between visual attention to 'less desirable' and, potentially, 'less expensive' options (e.g., domestic origins, import origins) improved price conscious consumers' purchase likelihood. This study does not delve into these motives, but they invite attention to potential reasons behind price conscious consumers' visual attention to various products/product attributes and suggests directions for future studies. Our results also have important implications for retailers. Retailers who are interested in targeting price conscious consumers and triggering them to buy should avoid promoting attributes that are perceived as more expensive (e.g., organic, local, etc.).

Despite providing interesting insights into price conscious consumers' visual and purchasing behavior, the present study does have several limitations that must be mentioned. First, to facilitate eye tracking, a localized sample was used. Consequently, generalizing the results to the general population should be done cautiously. Secondly, only one type of product (i.e., ornamental plants) was tested in the present study. Results will likely vary for products that are not perceived as luxury goods. Lastly, to reduce other visual inconsistencies, the experiment was conducted in a lab setting and is subject to biases typical to lab experiments. However, the lab setting provided the benefits of visual, locational, and methodological consistency, all of which become much more variable and inconsistent in a real retail setting. Conducting a comparative experiment in a retail center is one means of overcoming this bias in future experiments.

This study serves as a launching point for future studies addressing decision making styles and visual attention to in-store stimuli. For instance, future studies could use a similar methodology with frequently purchased necessities (i.e., bread, milk, etc.) to see how results change based on product type. Future studies could also assess how results vary based on experimental location (e.g., retail, lab, etc.) Finally, additional studies could build on the present study by introducing pricing promotion strategies and styles (e.g., sign size/color, type, etc.) to determine price conscious consumers' purchasing behavior based on those visual stimuli.

**Author Contributions:** Project design and research questions development: H.K. and A.R.; Data collection: H.K. and A.R.; Data analysis: A.R., H.K., and X.W.; Manuscript preparation: A.R.; Editing manuscript: A.R., H.K., and X.W.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
