How to boost fruit and vegetable sales? Place them at the storefront, says study

19 Oct 2018 --- Moving the location of fruit and vegetables in stores can lead to a 15 percent sales increase, a University of Warwick study has found. Researchers found that sales increased without any further messaging or marketing when the placement of fruit and vegetables changed, suggesting a simple “nudge” can lead to healthier diets for young adults. The findings, published in BMC Public Health, were based on data collected between 2012 and 2017 in a real University campus grocery store.

The changes to the location of the fruit and vegetables within the shop, Warwick's own Rootes Grocery Store, saw them being moved to closer to the store's entrance. This decision had been made without either the aim of conducting a research experiment or to purposefully encourage a healthier diet. Instead, the research, led by Dr. Oyinlola Oyebode of Warwick Medical School, was conducted only after the researchers had heard about the changes and were keen to investigate whether they had had any effect on fruit and vegetable purchasing.

“We looked at whether a change in the layout of a campus supermarket changed students' purchasing and we found that it did. Making the fruit and vegetables more accessible increased the amount of fruit and vegetables that were purchased,” says Dr. Oyebode.

From the collected data the researchers found that after the layout changes there was an increase in the percentage of the store's total sales that were fruit and vegetables, both regarding items sold and by value of total sales. They bought approximately 15 percent more fruit and vegetables than would have been expected without the intervention.

This suggests that a statistically significant and maintained increase in fruit and vegetable purchases by young adults can be achieved through “nudge” techniques and without the need for advertising or overt message campaigns.

“This is exciting because, while we all know eating fruit and vegetables is healthy, supporting people to increase their fruit and vegetable consumption has been more complicated,” she says.

“This ‘nudge’ intervention in a young adult population, is particularly appropriate because it doesn't restrict choice and doesn't require any conscious action by the young adult,” she adds.

The research findings have impacted the decisions made by the store featured in the research. One of the co-researchers Tony Howard, and Warwick's Director of Food and Retail Strategy explained: “Having found this result, we plan to support our students to eat healthily by keeping fruit and vegetables accessible in our campus grocery store.”

The findings could hold potential for similar setting across other institutions such as universities.