Nudging the trolley in the supermarket: How to deliver the right information to shoppers

Abstract The amount of information available to help decide what foods to buy and eat is increasing rapidly with the advent of concerns about, and data on, health impacts, environmental effects, and economic consequences. This glut of information can be overwhelming when presented within the context of a high time-pressure, low involvement activity such as supermarket shopping. How can we nudge people’s food shopping behavior in desired directions through targeted delivery of appropriate information? This paper investigates whether augmented reality can deliver relevant ‘instant information’ that can be interpreted and acted upon in situ, enabling people to make informed choices. The challenge is to balance the need to simplify and streamline the information presented with the need to provide enough information that shoppers can adjust their behavior toward meeting their goals. This paper discusses some of the challenges involved in designing such information displays and indicate some possible ways to meet those challenges.