In economics, a search good is a product or service with features and characteristics easily evaluated before purchase. In a distinction originally due to Philip Nelson, a search good is contrasted with an experience good.
Search goods are more subject to substitution and price competition, as consumers can easily verify the price of the product and alternatives at other outlets and make sure that the products are comparable. Branding and detailed product specifications act to transform a product from an experience good into a search good.
Famous quotes containing the word search:
“You that do search for every purling spring
Which from the ribs of old Parnassus flows,
And every flower, not sweet perhaps, which grows
Near thereabouts into your poesy wring;
You that do dictionary’s method bring
Into your rhymes, running in rattling rows;”
—Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)