How nutrition information influences online food sales

Although nutrition information informs consumer decisions at the point of sale in offline stores, it is unclear whether such information affects online food sales. Using a field experiment, we examine three issues: (1) the impact of nutrition information in online food shopping; (2) the interaction effects between nutrition information and seller reputation; and (3) the different effects of healthy and unhealthy food sales. Results indicate that nutrition information significantly increases food sales in online conditions and that seller reputation can strengthen the impact of such information. Furthermore, nutrition information creates more sales of healthy (versus unhealthy) food. Using an eye-tracking experiment to measure whether purchasers pay attention to nutrition information, we find that participants who look at nutrition information longer tend to choose foods with nutrition-fact labels.