Today, the digital association Bitkom published the results of a recent consumer survey on product information when shopping for groceries. According to the results, transparency about the content and origin of products is an important purchase criterion for the majority of German consumers. 24 percent already use their smartphones to obtain product information.
For this representative survey, Bitkom Research on behalf of the digital association Bitkom conducted telephone interviews in June and July 2021 with a total of 1,007 people in Germany aged 16 and above about their preferences when buying groceries.
These are further details:
- The product ingredients are decisive for 73 percent of German consumers when shopping for food. Product transparency regarding origin and manufacturing is another important purchasing criterion for 48 percent of consumers.
- Just under a quarter of respondents (24 percent) said they use the barcode scanner on their smartphone to find out more about products online, directly in the supermarket. Another 41 percent could imagine using a barcode scanner in the future. In 2019, only 20 percent made use of this option.
- By means of using QR codes, 22 percent of respondents (19 percent in 2019) already obtained information about products and 35 percent could potentially imagine doing so.
- Five percent of respondents said they used webcams to gain a direct insight into food production and animal stables in Germany. In 2019, this share amounted to less than one percent. Using such technology would be conceivable for 41 percent of consumers (32 percent in 2019).
Andreas Schweikert, Bitkom expert for agriculture, explained: "People want to go through the shelves informed and consciously select their products. The smartphone as a constant companion can provide easy and quick access to information. Consumers are increasingly demanding insights into farming and production conditions. Digital technologies make it possible to follow the path all the way to the supermarket shelves. More players along the value chain should make use of this."
Source: Bitkom
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