Is there a Link between Sustainability, Perception and Buying Decision at the Point of Sale?

Abstract

BackgroundIf retailers and brand manufacturers of food succeed in presenting their products at the point of sale, quickly generating a high level of attention, the likelihood of a purchase is significantly increased. Particularly, in recent years, they have been relying on the megatrend of sustainability. The importance of sustainable food has grown accordingly. Hence, an increasing number of manufacturers are challenged to communicate the sustainability of their products via packaging and displays at the point of sale.ObjectivesThe aim of this article is: to examine to what extent the design of individual packaging and display elements of new sustainable direct juice succeeds in visually communicating sustainability aspects. At the same time the willingness to pay of customers interested in sustainability must be commercialized.Methods/ApproachThe focus is on a real shopping situation in conditions that are as regular as possible. The perception of a display must be recorded by eye-tracking technology. A preliminary survey must examine consumers' attitudes towards sustainable food in order to relate it to the perception of individual display elements. For this purpose, the eye-tracking technology was combined with a survey of 32 customers.ResultsThe results demonstrate that customers with a positive attitude towards sustainable food behave in the following way: they fix individual packaging and display elements that refer to sustainable components for a longer period of time; they remember product features better and they tend to have a slightly higher willingness to pay for the sustainable direct juice.ConclusionsThe configuration of an authentic and natural shopping situation provides the manufacturer with concrete recommendations for the design of the display. This communicates the sustainability of its product and thus generates the desired attention.

The influence of social commerce on eco‐friendly consumer behavior: Technological and social roles

“…Similar to the PEU, in prior research, PU is shown to positively impact technology acceptance attitude and intention in the ecofriendly consumption context (Ali et al, 2020;Hua & Wang, 2019;Lamberz et al, 2020;Tsaur & Lin, 2018;Tu & Yang, 2019). However, in the present study, the PU of social commerce apps was not significantly associated with eco-friendly behavioral intention in either the short or the medium-/long-term, which is unexpectedly inconsistent with the literature.…”

“…The PEU positively influenced eco‐friendly behavioral intention in the short‐term, consistent with findings in the literature (Davis,1986; Davis,1989). Prior research has shown that the PEU determines consumers' attitudes toward new eco‐friendly technologies (Ali et al, 2020; Tsaur & Lin, 2018), and attitudes have a significant impact on the behavioral intention to eco‐friendly products (Hua & Wang, 2019; Lamberz et al, 2020; Tu & Yang, 2019). Our finding provides additional support to the above studies in terms of the periodicity of behavioral intentions.…”

“…TAM is very suitable for studying the technological factors that affect consumer behavior related to social commerce. In the eco‐friendly consumption context, previous literature suggested that PEU and PU can influence consumers' behavioral intention to use eco‐friendly products based on new pro‐environmental technologies (Ali et al, 2020; Hua & Wang, 2019; Lamberz et al, 2020; Tsaur & Lin, 2018; Tu & Yang, 2019).…”

Eye-Tracking Studies on Sustainable Food Consumption: A Systematic Literature Review

“…If this is the case, logo and picture labels are preferred over text labels and receive greater visual attention [13,45]. Sustainable labels should be designed with as little text as possible in order to achieve a high level of initial attention [22]. A larger and visually more eye-catching sustainable label significantly increases the fixation likelihood of that label and the impact on consumer attention [50].…”

“…Eye-tracking makes it possible to obtain information about consumer decision-making by studying consumers' search strategies based on their eye movements and visual attention to food during the purchase process [7,19,20]. This involves constructing hypothetical purchase decisions using web-based, screen-based, or head-mounted eye-trackers in different test situations, i.e., test labs [17,21] or shopping environments [5,22]. The eye-trackers are used to measure the eye movements and visual attention of test participants and to record which elements trigger stimuli or which elements the focus is on [17,23].…”