A recent study suggests that it is possible to significantly influence consumer purchasing behavior through simple strategies. Researchers from the University of Bonn and the T investigated the impact of nudging on the sales of products that are produced with high animal welfare standards in a virtual supermarket. Nudges are subtle prompts or suggestions that are intended to encourage certain behaviors, such as positioning certain products in more prominent locations.The researchers at the Technical University of Munich found that nudging has a significant impact on the sale of products that meet high animal welfare standards in a virtual supermarket. Nudges, which are subtle forms of encouragement, were used to influence consumer behavior, such as placing these products in more visible locations. In the experiment, participants who were nudged selected high animal welfare products twice as often as those in the control group. However, it is not yet known how these findings can be applied to real-world purchasing decisions. The study has been published in the journal Appetite.
Nudging refers to gently influencing someone’s behavior in a certain direction, without outright banning things or offering monetary rewards. Dr. Nina Weingarten from the Institute for Food and Resource Economics at the University of Bonn tested this strategy in a virtual supermarket to see if it could encourage consumers to consider animal welfare when making purchases. The goal was to motivate consumers to pay more attention to animal welfare aspects while making purchases without outright banning things or offering monetary incentives. Food produced according to high animal welfare standards has only been mod.have made it our mission to ensure that consumers are fully informed about the animal welfare standards of the products they purchase,” says a spokesperson for the Animal Welfare Association. “We are working with supermarkets to encourage them to expand their range of animal welfare products and to make these products more visible to consumers. It is important that consumers understand the impact of their purchasing decisions on animal welfare, and we believe that by increasing the availability and visibility of these products, we can help consumers make more informed choices.”
The Animal Welfare Association is also calling for clearer and more consistent labeling of animal welfare products, as well as stricter enforcement of existing labeling regulations. They believe that this will help to increase consumer confidence in the labeling system and encourage more people to purchase animal welfare products. “We have seen a growing interest in animal welfare products, but there is still a long way to go in terms of making these products more mainstream,” says the spokesperson. “By working with supermarkets and the government to improve labeling and enforcement, we hope to make animal welfare products a more accessible and attractive option for consumers.”
Overall, while there has been some progress in raising awareness of animal welfare products in Germany, there is still a lot of work to be done to make these products more visible and accessible to consumers. With the support of the Animal Welfare Association and other organizations, it is hoped that supermarkets and the government will take steps to improve labeling and enforcement, ultimately making it easier for consumers to make more informed choices about the products they purchase.
“We wanted to see if we could boost sales of animal welfare products by making them more accessible and noticeable,” explained Weingarten. To conduct the study, the researchers utilized two digital supermarkets in the form of 3D simulations with graphics resembling modern video games. Customers were able to view the shelves from a first-person perspective, pick up and inspect the products from all angles, add them to their shopping cart, and ultimately make a purchase. “It’s important to note that the purchasing decision was only hypothetical,” clarified Prof. Monika Hartmann, who heads the Department of Agricultural and Food Market Research at the University.iversity of Bonn found that the participants were not required to actually make payments for their shopping and no actual products were supplied to them afterwards. The test subjects were split into two groups, with one group instructed to shop in a regular supermarket and the other group in a nudged supermarket. The nudged supermarket had various elements implemented, such as floor markings in the shape of footprints to guide customers to a designated “animal welfare shelf.” This special shelf made it easier for consumers to locate meat, milk, and eggs produced with high animal welfare standards. Weingarten commented on this, stating that the nudged group had access to these products in one central location on an additional shelf.banners placed in various locations helped customers become aware of the extra shelf. The nudging group chose animal welfare products nearly twice as often as the control group, showing that the implementations were very successful. Further research is necessary to determine how these results can be applied to the actual purchase of food. The psychologist notes that many people are very conscious of prices, and animal welfare products are typically more expensive. However, in the experiment, the price sensitivity likely played a small role since the purchases were still high.The study revealed that even though price-sensitive customers tended to choose more expensive animal welfare products less often from digital displays in the supermarket, they behaved similarly to less price-sensitive customers. Additionally, these price-sensitive customers were influenced by nudging measures and ended up buying more food produced according to high animal welfare standards. This suggests that gentle nudges had an impact on their purchasing decisions.
According to Prof. Hartmann, more studies are needed to determine the reliability of these effects. Additionally, there has been limited research on the long-term impact of nudging and whether the effects wear off quickly. The University of Bonn and the Technical University of Munich participated in the study, which was funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).
