Encouraging healthy choices in the retail store environment: Combining product information and shelf allocation

Abstract

Nutritional information and the visibility of healthier food products inside the store are believed to be important variables in helping shoppers to make healthy choices. However, there remain gaps in our understanding of how consumers select healthy products and how they include complex nutritional information in the decision-making process, in a stimuli rich environment. This research tests the impact of different combinations of stimuli (information and space management) on the selection of healthier products. Through a within-between subjects on-line experiment, a set of hypotheses relating different combinations of information provision (communication) and space management (shelf display) were tested for two different product categories: cereal bars and breakfast cereals. The sample comprised 249 participants within the UK. Results show that there is no single unique solution to encourage healthy food choices. The characteristics of the category, the frequency of purchase, the way products are displayed on the shelf and the complexity of the nutritional information provided matter. This paper enriches the literature about healthy food choice behaviours by exploring combined interventions in store.