Mapping of the digital climate nudges in Nordic online grocery stores

Abstract

This paper explores how 21 Nordic online food retailers nudge their customers towards more climate-friendly food choices. We use a choice architecture taxonomy dividing the nudges into decision information, decision structure, and decision assistance. We find that most retailers use several types of climate nudges. Most of these are decision information type nudges, such as personalized carbon footprint apps and climate labels. Wide use of non-salient nudges, often presenting the climate impact after the customers have made their purchase, limits the potential impact of information on consumers' environmental footprints. Furthermore, the use of broad climate categories and aggregated CO2 measures reflect the challenges in calculating the footprints of individual products. The lack of industry-wide standards for emission data and climate labels makes the current situation challenging for customers wanting to compare emissions across stores. Our results also show that few stores have any form of decision structure or decision assistance nudges, even though these are often found to be the most effective types in the literature on nudges. We end with discussing promising digital climate nudging opportunities for retailers seeking to reduce the environmental footprint of their customers.