Roxanne van Giesen and Jorna Leenheer
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of digital displays to enhance consumers’ shopping experience and sustainable consumption by more specifically informing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of digital displays to enhance consumers’ shopping experience and sustainable consumption by more specifically informing consumers on the origin and sustainability of products.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental field study was conducted in the Supermarket of the Future at the World Expo where sustainability information was displayed on interactive screens. There were three experimental groups: supermarket visitors who were put in a sustainability mind-set, supermarket visitors without a sustainability mind-set activation and non-visitors.
Findings
Store visitors extensively used the interactive displays, they intent to behave more sustainable in the future, and act more sustainable outside the food domain. Sustainability information through digital displays thus triggers consumers to think more about environmental concerns. Consumers who were activated to process sustainability information before entering the supermarket, show increased interest in the innovative shopping concept. Strong evidence that the increased interest translates into more sustainable consumer choices in the supermarket itself is lacking.
Originality/value
The authors obtain insight in consumer use of sustainability information presented on interactive displays in a retail environment and how this in turn affects behaviour. The study reveals that consumers can successfully be motivated to become more sustainable through interactive displays.
Details
Keywords
Millie Elsen and Jorna Leenheer
This research examines how the design of the online energy label can be improved to stimulate consumer choice of energy-efficient household products in Web stores. Based on…
Abstract
Purpose
This research examines how the design of the online energy label can be improved to stimulate consumer choice of energy-efficient household products in Web stores. Based on general evaluability theory, the authors propose new label formats that aim to improve the evaluability of the label information for consumers and test their influence during two distinct stages in the online decision-making process: consideration set formation and final choice.
Design/methodology/approach
Two large-scale controlled online experiments are conducted with over 10,000 consumers in 10 European countries. The experiments test label alternatives in simulated online store environments, mimicking the two distinct decision stages, for four product categories to enhance generalizability. The data are analyzed using random-intercept linear and logistic regression models to account for their multi-level structure.
Findings
The results show that the impact of the online energy label on consumers’ online decision-making depends on both the label format and the decision stage (consideration vs choice), but in a different way than expected. The findings reveal that the current online energy label is significantly outperformed by a label that provides reference information by incorporating the scale range. This alternative label is particularly effective in the consideration set formation stage, and among consumers who consider energy efficiency a relatively unimportant choice criterion.
Research limitations/implications
Online energy labels encourage consumers to consider and choose more energy-efficient products, especially if scale range information is included. The present results stress the importance of presenting this information early on in the online decision process. They also show that, particularly at this early stage and particularly for consumers who find energy efficiency a relatively unimportant choice criterion, label format matters.
Practical implications
The present findings provide important input for policymakers in the context of the ongoing revision of the EU energy label. They also help online retailers make decisions about when and how to present product information on their websites.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on product labelling by examining the effects of relatively unexplored types of reference information in two distinct stages of the consumer decision-making process. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to test the effectiveness of the online energy label.