How to induce sales of sustainable and organic food: The case of a traffic light eco-label in online grocery shopping

Food consumption is one of the major levers of a private household's environmental impact. However, grocery shoppers often lack the time, the involvement, or the necessary knowledge to accurately judge a food product's environmental friendliness. As a result, shoppers either forgo sustainability considerations completely or they rely on heuristic factors, for example the product's origin. In an attempt to empower grocery shoppers to make informed yet time-saving decisions, we explore the introduction of an eco-label to highlight a product's environmental footprint at a glance. We first conduct an online survey to determine the kind of eco-label design that would be the most promising for promoting sales of sustainable and organic food. Second, we conduct an online experiment to test the eco-label's effect on online shoppers' choices across four product categories. We find that the eco-label does indeed have a significant, partly subconscious, effect, particularly if the label has an intuitive, traffic light-colored design. The effect is greatest for low-involvement shoppers, a group that otherwise mainly bases its purchasing decisions on price. Even more promisingly, the greatest reductions are in product choices of the least sustainable product alternatives. In turn, organic food that complies with even stricter (environmental) regulations than those required by organic minimum standards are chosen significantly more often.

Automated summary

This study aimed to explore the introduction of an eco-label to enhance shoppers' awareness of food environmental friendliness, promoting sales of sustainable and organic food. The experimental results showed that the eco-label had a significant, partly subconscious effect on shoppers' choices, particularly for low-involvement shoppers.