PL snack and bakery lines have moved beyond the basic and bargain-basement to go toe-to-toe with big-brand offerings.

In May 2014, the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI), McLean, Va., launched a national effort to encourage consumers to take a fresh look at frozen foods.

Evri and Yodel customers are the least satisfied with their experience when it comes to contacting parcel firms for help, Ofcom has found, while Amazon and DHL are the best performers. 

Fisher-Price issues a partial recall on all models of over two million Snuga Swings after five infants die from suffocation

GAMMA Sports has recently launched a new website to sell their products to everyday athletes. The new site provides consumers with easier visibility to products, a sleek look and simple check-out process.

Borro's team of accredited luxury asset experts and financing specialists tailor loans to meet individual and business needs, making Borro a trusted lender to over 15,000 clients since 2008.

Court revives Enigma's lawsuit against Malwarebytes. Court rules immunity protection under Section 230 of CDA is "not limitless."

Italy's new prime minister Giorgia Meloni explains why so many people are afraid of her victory. American newspapers categorize her as "far-right", but Italian newspapers call her "center-right". Let's see what she does.

The new Prime Minister of Italy.

Wow. pic.twitter.com/fkKTM8I9Fs

— Aaron Ginn (@aginnt) September 26, 2022

As small business owners across the nation gear up for Small Business Saturday, a record number of shoppers are making plans to support their favorite local businesses. According to the fourth-annual Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey, released by the National Federation of Independent Businesses and American Express, supporting local small businesses continues to be a priority for shoppers nationwide.

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It is easy to see why text messaging is the most-used data service across the world. We send and receive five times as many texts compared with the number of phone calls each day, according to mobile intelligence firm Informate.

A huge 90 percent of the time, a text is read within the first three minutes of receiving. Customers who receive texts from businesses tend to have a 40 percent higher conversion rate than those who do not. Small businesses could benefit from this consumer behaviour.

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The survey shows that consumers have already been going out of their way to support small businesses. 86% of those surveyed say they have continued to support locally owned businesses during quarantine.

The research uncovers how consumers have been supporting local businesses during lockdown. For example, 77% said they have been participating in a virtual experience offered by a local business. 60% of consumers said they have been ordering more takeaways and deliveries from local restaurants.

New reader Karl H asks about Consumers. Beryl Ford photos and a link in GroupBlog 330.

Discussing the references to being children of Abraham in both the epistle and Gospel for the day, Fr. Andrew contrasts that image with the modern consumerist approach to religion common in American society.

This study investigates the effects of social media marketing efforts (SMME) on smartphone brand identification, attachment, association, and willingness to pay premium prices. A survey of 320 smartphone users who followed official social media handles managed by smartphone companies was conducted for this purpose. PLS-SEM was used to analyse the collected data. The findings demonstrated importance of SMME dimensions. According to the study's findings, the smartphone brand's SMMEs had significant impact on brand identification, brand association, and brand attachment. The results revealed that SMMEs had significant impact on willingness to pay the premium price. The findings also show that brand identification, attachment, and association mediated the relationship between SMMEs and willingness to pay a premium price. The findings of this study will be useful in developing social media marketing strategies for smartphones. This study demonstrates the use of social media marketing to promote mobile phones, particularly in emerging markets.

The prevalence of social media transforms e-business into social commerce and facilitates consumers' engagement in cross-cultural social commerce. However, social commerce operations encounter unpredictable challenges in cross-cultural business environment. It is vital to further investigate how contextual elements affect consumers' trust and their engagement when they are exposed to the complexity of cross-cultural business environment. The stimuli-organism-response paradigm is employed to examine how the two dimensions of social media usage influence consumers' engagement in cross-cultural social commerce. The current study surveyed 2,058 samples from 135 countries, and the regression analysis results illustrate the mechanism whereby informational and socialising usage of social media positively influences consumers' engagement in social commerce through consumers' trust toward social commerce websites. Additionally, the associations between two aspects of social media usage and consumers' trust towards social commerce are negatively moderated by cultural distance. Both theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Aim/Purpose: The current study investigates the relationship between mobile and email marketing and consumer impulse buying tendencies in Pakistan. Background: Technology has become a primary driver for all business operations, which has dramatically transformed the wireless communications marketing paradigm. However, researchers have claimed that further inquiry is still needed to explore the role that distinct and emerging global technologies have on marketing communication strategies. This study explores the linkage of mobile and email marketing on consumers’ impulse buying behavior in Pakistan. Methodology: Primary data were collected through the distribution of 1000 questionnaires among students of different universities within two provinces of Pakistan: Punjab and Khyber Pakhton Khan (KPK). The study was conducted between November 2016 and March 2017. The authors received back 950 surveys, which is a very significant rate of return (95%). Of those submitted, 900 surveys were deemed eligible for analysis after improper documents were eliminated. Structure equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to test the study’s hypotheses. Contribution: This study assists organizations in improving marketing campaigns by focusing more on mobile devices (m-devices) and email medium to better comprehend consumers’ assessment processes at a lower budgetary cost. Such digital considerations could provide innovative possibilities for marketers in approaching their target market by adopting novel methods for information sharing. Findings: The findings revealed a positive association between mobile and email marketing on consumers’ impulse buying tendencies. The comprehensive analysis affirmed; however, there is a higher positive relationship of mobile marketing results compared to email marketing outcomes. There are favorable benefits in considering such emerging methods in marketing communications as promotional strategies are considered by organizations. Recommendations for Practitioners: Marketers are encouraged to evaluate the potential of using both emerging mediums to take advantage of consumer impulse buying habits where m-devices and emails approaches are utilized. Future Research: Future inquiries might examine the global influence of m-devices and email technology toward other buying tendencies of consumers: exploratory, online, variety seeking, habitual, and other emerging complex on-demand buying behavior.

Aim/Purpose: This study identifies the elements that influence intentions to purchase from the most popular Arabic online classifieds platform, OpenSooq.com. Background: Online purchasing has become popular among consumers in the past two decades, with perceived risk and trust playing key roles in consumers’ intention to purchase online. Methodology: A questionnaire survey was conducted of Internet users from three Jordanian districts to investigate how they used the OpenSooq platform in their e-commerce activities. In total, 202 usable responses were collected, and the data were analyzed with PLS-SEM for hypothesis testing and model validation. Contribution: Though online trading is increasingly popular, the factors that impact the behavior of consumers when purchasing high-value products have not been adequately investigated. Therefore, this study examined the factors affecting perceived risk, and the potential impact of privacy concerns on the perceived risk of online smartphone buyers. The study framework can help explore online behavior in various situations to ascertain similarities and differences and probe other aspects of online buying. Findings: Perceived risk negatively correlates with online purchasing behavior and trust. However, privacy concern and perceived risk, transaction security and trust, and trust and online purchasing behavior exhibited positive correlations. Recommendations for Practitioners: Customers can complete and retain online purchases in a range of settings illuminated in this study’s methods and procedures. Moreover, businesses can manage their IT arrangements to make Internet shopping more convenient and build processes for online shopping that allow for engagement, training, and ease of use, thus improving their customers’ online purchasing behavior. Recommendation for Researchers: Given the insight into the understanding and integration of variables including perceived risk, privacy issues, trust, transaction security, and online purchasing behavior, academics can build on the groundwork of this research paradigm to investigate underdeveloped countries, particularly Jordan, further. Impact on Society: Understanding the characteristics that influence online purchasing behavior can help countries realize the full potential of online shopping, particularly the benefits of safe, fast, and low-cost financial transactions without the need for an intermediary. Future Research: Future research can examine the link between online purchase intent, perceived risk, privacy concerns, trust, and transaction security to see if the findings of this study in Jordan can be applied to a broader context in other countries.

Aim/Purpose: This study aimed to explore the impact of environmental drivers and trust on consumers’ adoption of Fintech services in the Jordanian context. It had also evaluated the mediating role of trust on the relation between environmental drivers and consumers adoption of Fintech services. Background: The reviewed studies on Fintech adoption demonstrated a lack of focus on the role of external or environmental drivers on consumers’ intentions to use and continue to use of Fintech services. Amongst the analyzed studies, the majority had examined the role of consumers perception of services usefulness and ease of use while few had included some environmental variables within the investigated variables such as social influence and government support. Furthermore, shortage of Fintech adoption related research in the developing countries, especially the Jordanian context was noted. Methodology: The study conceptual model was derived from Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and Technological Personal Environmental (TPE) framework. This study was a quantitative one that employed survey method to empirically address its research questions and test the proposed hypotheses. Jordanian residents over the age of 18 who are familiar with Fintech were targeted, and convenience sampling was applied to get representative sample. Data was assembled from 323 respondents using an online questionnaire. Partial Least Squares Structure Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to analyze the gathered data through SMART-PLS software. Contribution: This article adds to the existing literature on multiple stands, as it adds to literature related to Fintech adoption, as well as the interaction between consumer environment and their level of adoption. It also enriches the limited literature on the influence of COVID-19 to drive consumer usage of innovative services. Moreover, it supplements the scarce literature on Fintech adoption in the Jordanian settings. Findings: The main findings revealed the positive influence of both environmental drivers and trust as predictors of consumer intention to use Fintech services. It had also asserted the positive mediating effect of trust on the relationship amongst environmental drivers and consumer usage intent. Recommendations for Practitioners: By understanding the importance of consumer environment and trust on encouraging consumer to adopt Fintech services, governments, policy makers and practitioners can utilize this knowledge to adopt their offered services. They need to work on enhancing the technological infrastructure, as well as establishing general technological knowledge. They also need to highlight the role of Fintech service in fighting Covid-19, by adhering to the social distancing rules. Moreover, they need to guarantee the security and reliability of the developed services to increase their level of trust in the offered services. Recommendation for Researchers: This research has confirmed the positive influence of consumer environment represented by social influence, government support, technological readiness, and COVID-19 on their adoption of Fintech services. It has also established the mediating influence of consumer trust on the relation between environmental drivers and consumer intent to use Fintech services. This area is unexplored and needs more validation. Impact on Society: By understanding the factors affecting the Jordanian society in adopting Fintech services, this research provides set of recommendation to the Jordanian government and policy makers that can lead for more adoption of the developed Fintech services, which in turn would lead to better services provided to the society as well as increasing the financial inclusion level in the Jordanian society. Future Research: Future research can explore other environmental variables that were not included in the current research. Future research can also investigate the moderating effect of personal attributes such as consumer’s demographics, or more personal attributes such as self-efficacy, inherit innovativeness or risk aversion. It can also examine the moderating effect of financial literacy and/ or technological background.

The privacy of personal information is an important area of focus in today’s electronic world, where information can so easily be captured, stored, and shared. In recent years it has regularly featured as a topic in news media and has become the target of legislation around the world. Multidisciplinary privacy research has been conducted for decades, yet privacy remains a complex subject that still provides fertile ground for further investigation. This article provides a narrative overview of the nature of information privacy, describing the complexities and challenges that consumers and organizations face when making decisions about it, in order to demonstrate its importance to both groups. Based on this work, we present a transdisciplinary view of information privacy research linking the consumer and organization. It illustrates areas of concern for consumers and organizations together with the factors that influence the decisions they make about information privacy. By providing such a view we hope to encourage further cross-disciplinary research into this highly pertinent area.

Aim/Purpose: The focus on human well-being has attracted the attention of consumers, organizations, and marketers to understand the various facets of Front of Pack Nutrition Labelling (FOPNL). This study examines the overall research trends in the FPONL domain and identifies the new research areas. Background: FOPNL is becoming increasingly popular and its influence has been widely examined. Different label schemes have been introduced across different regions in the world. Nevertheless, such interventions are limited in developing economies. Methodology: This study uses bibliometric analysis methods to explore Front of Pack Nutrition Labelling (FOPNL) trends using 602 articles published in selected business journals. Contribution: The paper identifies the new FOPNL research avenues. The study indicates that FOPNL has become a crucial research area, and more research is needed at the organization, managerial, and policy levels. Findings: The study identifies four themes. The first theme identified is the effect of harmful nutrients on health and the role of FOPNL nutrition in changing eating habits. The second theme focused on the government's policy and implementation of FOPNL nutrition labeling regulations. The third theme is dedicated to the work on attention, perception, understanding, and influence of multiple traffic light schemes. The fourth theme relates to the Health Star Rating, Nutri Score, and Healthier Choice FOPNL nutrition labeling schemes. Overall, the paper informs consumers, manufacturers, and regulators about the recent trends in the FOPNL research. Recommendation for Researchers: Though FOPNL has been widely examined in the health and nutrition domain, however, limited research has been done in the marketing domain. Research using neuroscientific methods (e.g. eye tracking) should provide more robust findings. Future Research: There is limited research on FOPNL from emerging economies. Future research can examine how FOPNL may influence people, policy, and private entities.

This article examines the conditions under which organizations publicly respond to unfavorable consumer evaluations that challenge their market identity. Because organizations' market identities are certified by expert evaluations, consumers' devaluations that challenge these expert evaluations represent an identity threat. However, organizations do not always react to consumers' devaluations because of the risks associated to public responses. Hence, we first predict that organizations are more likely to respond to severe devaluations than to weaker ones; second, we propose that organizations, when faced with severe devaluations, are more likely to craft responses that justify their actions and behaviors. We further contend that, for any market identity under consideration, an organization's reputation amplifies these relationships. Analyses of a dataset of London hoteliers' responses to online reviews posted on TripAdvisor during the period 2002-2012 lend substantial support to our hypotheses.

Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, offers the Wiser™ Energy Management System, a demand management solution for utilities and consumers that allows homeowners to reduce or shift energy use during peak times and improves grid efficiency.

Washington — Citing a growing trend of people pointing lasers at airplanes, the Federal Aviation Administration is calling for product labels warning consumers that the safety of flight crews and passengers is being put at risk.

Whether it's adding a kick to comfort foods, taking advantage of the hottest (pun intended) global dishes, or spicing up beverages, it's clear that trendy heat can help consumers combat the cold.

Earlier this year, the Oregon cheesemakers at Tillamook released a comprehensive trend report on new ways consumers are finding to enjoy cheese. Two intriguing pairings revealed by the report included matching artisanal honeys with artisanal cheeses, and what the trend-spotters called “the cheddar plunge”.

Keeping food safe (70%) and the use of pesticides (60%) are top concerns when considering how food is grown. Nutritional content, use of agricultural technology, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, and farm workers welfare were other listed concerns consumers factor into their purchase decisions.  

“In today’s media landscape, headlines often sensationalize conflicting opinions on the role sweeteners should play in a healthy diet,” Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, MS, RDN, IFIC president & CEO, said. 

Healthy aging could be defined as staying active and in good health—both physically and mentally—while getting older. Overall, three-quarters of consumers we survey report that healthy aging is “very” or “extremely important” to them. 

Consumers are drawn to the complementary flavors and heat levels offered by different peppers and regional tastes. Understanding these synergies can help manufacturers discover new product innovation opportunities.

The ambiguity continues as half of Americans also do not know how much sodium they consume each day. When asked about their personal daily sodium consumption, 48% of Americans say they simply “don’t know,” while estimates vary widely for the other 52%.

“Consumers are looking for wellness across every aspect of their lives, and food and beverages are playing a critical role in this transformation,” said Sally Lyons Wyatt, global executive vice president and chief advisor at Circana. 

Ongoing studies focusing on the human microbiome reveal novel insights into the diverse applications of probiotics beyond gut health. Emerging research explores the intricate connection between microbiota and various health conditions, propelling innovative probiotic solutions targeting specific health concerns.

The US Food and Drug Administration launched an initiative to help consumers use the new Nutrition Facts label that appears on packaged foods to maintain healthy dietary practices.

The FDA considers the term “natural” to mean that nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless of source) has been included in, or has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in that food.

Earlier this year, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that spending on food-ordering apps for deliveries from full-service restaurants quadrupled between pre-pandemic months and 2022. 

From electrolyte-packed drinks to sustainable hydration solutions, brands introduce innovative products designed to keep consumers refreshed and replenished.

These reports highlight that Hispanics now make up 20% of the US population and account for 71% of national population growth between 2022 and 2023. More than 25% of Gen Z and Gen Alpha identify as Hispanic, demonstrating the long-term potential of this powerful consumer group.

According to the IFIC survey, one-third of Americans (33%) reported changing their LNCS consumption habit between April 2023 and April 2024. While 10% said they increased LNCS consumption and 6% said they started consuming LNCS, 11% said they decreased LNCS consumption and 6% said they stopped consuming LNCS altogether.

FOOD ENGINEERING talks with Mintel Consulting’s Lynn Dornblaser about consumer preferences for pet food over the last five years and what’s ahead.

Five hundred members of Flooring America, Flooring Canada and The Floor Trader learn the latest strategies to drive growth and market differentiation for independent flooring retailers.

The ingredients most likely to influence purchasing decisions were probiotics, vitamins and minerals and fiber.

The post How Do Financial Attitudes and Preferences Vary among Latine Consumers? was curated by information for practice.

Descartes Systems Group has released findings from its 2024 Home Delivery Sustainability Report: The Environmentally Conscious Consumer Under Pressure survey, which examined online consumer sentiment of retailers’ sustainability practices around their delivery operations.

While discounts and sales events have long been associated with holiday shopping, new data from e-commerce provider Visualsoft reveals that consumers are motivated by more than just deep discounts when it comes to their seasonal and gifting purchases.

The low migration inks market size is projected to be worth US$ 1.4 billion in 2023. The market is likely to surpass US$ 2.8 billion by 2033. It is expected to showcase growth at an impressive CAGR of 6.9% during the forecast period.

New research by BSI reveals growing public confidence in AI capabilities, with over half (51%) of respondents saying AI could perform some aspects of their job, up from 38% in 2023.

Whilst the survey highlighted some concerns related to deployment, it showed that people are optimistic about AI’s capabilities....

The open internet — comprising news and general websites, over-the-top (OTT) and connected TV (CTV), music streaming and online gaming — reaches almost 600 million consumers, which equates to nearly every internet user in India.

As a cardiologist, I am continuously telling my patients about the importance of heart health. While many people wait until the new year to focus on their health, the holiday season provides the perfect time for them to make a conscious effort to eat items that are heart healthy.