A consumer is likely to have a broad search including more brands during an external information search when:

There is a direct relationship between perceived risk and external research.  The higher the perceived risk, the more external research a consumer will carry out. Perceived risk is not simply fearing that you will make a bad purchase, but it also refers to the costs and benefits associated with the purchase.

The higher the benefits that a consumer can obtain from a purchase, the higher the risk of not getting enough benefits if they make a bad choice. E.g. if you have a lot of good choices available, then you will want to do some more research to choose the best one.

Generally consumers include more brands in their search when they are physically in stores. As consumers we generally consider a very limited number of brands when we shop online, but when we are in a store, we tend to broaden our search and include al the brands that we find.

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