Do green information transparency and exposure always boost online sales of organic food? an Evidence from China

Abstract

Although information transparency and exposure have proven to be important factors in influencing sales, it needs to be further explored whether they always have a boosting effect on sales. This research collected sales data from an e-commerce platform in China to measure the impact of green information transparency and exposure on online sales of organic food, while an eye-tracking experiment was conducted for variable construction. Results show that both green information transparency and exposure can significantly promote online sales of organic food, but the promotion effect varies by sales volume level. In addition, a new finding is that increasing either the green information transparency or exposure will better promote sales than both increasing them. The research emphasizes the value of making trade-offs between green information transparency and exposure in promoting sales. In other words, in order to increase sales as much as possible, stakeholders need to consider more publicly transparent green information or more frequent exposure of green information depending on the level of sales.