[1] The goal is to recreate the experience of live shopping as a leisure activity, where the items are selected by sampling or viewing a variety of similar or related goods.
To achieve this experience online, discovery shopping sites offer features such as specifying styles, colors and brands, showing similar items, and displaying results in a visually engaging format.
Such tools allow shoppers to narrow down from a large to number of choices to a set of products that they find appealing.
Comprehensiveness and relevancy are also critical factors, since choice and accuracy increase a shopper's chances of finding a product they wish to purchase.
[4] According to Silicon Valley strategy consultant Sramana Mitra, examples of discovery shopping sites include TheFind.com, Listar,[5] ShopStyle.com.