Project

INSTORELAB: Development of a mobile tool to analyze consumer in-store behaviour for furthering healthy and sustainable food choices

Acronym
INSTORELAB2024
Code
41F04524
Duration
01 June 2024 → 31 December 2024
Funding
European funding: framework programme
Research disciplines
  • Social sciences
    • Advertising
Keywords
food
 
Project description
Many consumers want to make healthier and more sustainable choices, but find it hard to do so in the supermarket environment, where decisions are made in a situaon characterized by me pressure and informaon overload. At the same me, retailers, manufacturers and regulators struggle with geng insights about consumers’in-store behaviour that would allow them to design product labels, shelves and stores in a way that helps consumers making beer decisions. In order to help manufacturers, retailers and regulators to develop products and food choice environments that smulate healthier and more sustainable choices, EIT Food has started the Consumer Observatory, aiming to create Europe’ central hub for consumer insights on agri-food topics. In order to achieve this aim, the Consumer Observatory, in addion to the instruments it already has developed, urgently needs a methodology to analyse in-store consumer behaviour. Such a methodology would need to cover both the cognive and emoonal reacons of consumers to the in-store environment and link these reacons to actual behaviour at the shelf, and it would need to be mobile, being able to be applied in different stores as need arises, without the need for sophiscated permanent installaons. While a number of commercial actors currently offer analyses of in-store consumer behaviour, none of these lives up to these requirements. The current proposal therefore aims at developing such a methodology, based upon a combinaon of 3D sensor analysis that monitors movements in the store and shelf-related behaviours, physiological measurement of arousal in the store and recording of cognive reacons to in-store smuli. The aim of this project is to develop the methodology, apply it in a pilot study in a store environment, and validate the usability of the results with manufacturers, retailers and regulators. If successful, the methodology will then subsequently become part of the toolbox of the EIT Food Consumer Observatory and be applied on a large scale across Europe. This project directly contributes to the priority challenge called "Increased uptake of affordable, nutrious, sustainable food products targeng NCD risks in key markets and demographics", by generang evidence that can directly be used to create a beer alignment between consumers’desire to make healthier and more sustainable food choices and the choice environment in which these choices occur. By enabling changes in food choice environments that lead to healthier and more sustainable choices, the insights generated will contribute both to beer health outcomes from consumers’diet along with improved environmental impact of the agrifood system. It also contributes to the other priority challenges linked to Labelling, Packaging and Transparency priority area.