Research suggests consumers want to use mobile technology to help them make better eating choices, according to Professor Diogo Souza Monteiro, a senior lecturer in Agribusiness Management at the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom (U.K.).
Speaking during one of the educational micro-sessions at The New York Produce Show and Conference, Professor Souza said mobile technology, such as QR codes, hand-held scanners, social media and apps, is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and therefore retailers and vendors cannot avoid it.
However, Professor Souza warned that mobile technology must be used properly and admitted it is yet to be determined whether it will actually change consumer behavior. Furthermore, he pointed out that there are still concerns among consumers about their privacy and data security.
“These innovations have the potential to create value for consumers by providing additional information on products, tracking their expenses in store, comparing prices of similar products in store and online,” Professor Souza explained.
“For retailers/vendors, the beauty of mobile technology is that you can track consumers, improve your understanding of shopper behavior, monitor consumer reactions to products via social media, personalize messages to individual consumers, use the technology to adjust your offer and match online services, as well as create intimacy and increase loyalty.”
In the future, Professor Souza said he envisages mobile technology (at a retail level) will be led by a hand-held scanner that reads QR codes to display a set of information about products. Having carried out two studies in the U.K., in collaboration with Ben Lowe and Iain Fraser at the University of Kent’s Business School, Professor Souza found that respondents were willing to pay for information through such a device, but only for the information that they wanted.
“UK consumers seem to value the use of mobile technology for information, especially allergy and dietary information, but not so much for nutritional information,” he revealed. “Surprisingly, they didn’t want summarized information — they valued customized diet and health information. So, it might improve their choices.”
Source: PerishableNews.com
