EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Customer’s problem

The problem which we aim to solve is one concerning the purchase of food in everyday life and the lack of information the customer faces when going grocery shopping. Most of people cannot really relate to the products bought in the supermarket, because many of them have not actually seen a farm or a crop of vegetables in real life. The consumer drowns in a sea of advertisements and seals which allegedly are supposed to guarantee a products quality. They promise that plants and animals had a good life, were not treated with chemicals or antibiotics, and were fed only with the regional food or soil. But over the time, some of these seals lost their credibility and do not entirely provide the consumer with the information a conscious buyer would want to obtain, in order to make the choice she or he would make under total information.

The suggested solution

The service we want to provide is to not only making this lacking information accessible, but to also make it relatable, visualisable and reliable. It is our aim to set up a platform which gives access to each product’s basic information, including e.g. the nutrition, the treatment with medicine and the access to free space when talking about animal products, or the origin of the seeds and the treatment of soil and plants with chemicals when vegetables and fruits are in the focus. But the target goes beyond only providing information on these products. The key point for this idea is to provide footage of the different production places in the shape of short videos (between 30s and 3 min) which show these most important aspects of production, so that for the first time the consumer can actually see where and how the food she/he is buying is produced. The duration of the video clips will be decided according to the results of our questionnaire (for now, it shows that consumers prefer a 1 minute-video) and to farmer advices.

We think a duration of one minute and thirty seconds would be a perfect compromise : we can show all the necessary information thanks to essential pictures and videos accompanied by an explaining sentence, and also add selective moments of the farmer’s interview. Moreover, if the consumer is very interested in the product and wants to know more about the production, he can watch the whole interview on our heading platform. However, it is not our aim to draw the consumer’s choice towards certain products, but to give him neutrally gathered visual informations about the food offered. Part of the idea is that the consumer shall be able to access this information when standing right in the supermarket making her/his consumption choice. The consumer can be sure that we provide him neutrally gathered visual information because we will collaborate with label and agricultural organizations, and before working with the potential interested farmers, they will have to sign a contract saying we can see their reglementary document and have an evidence of their certifications (on animal living conditions, processes, labels…) and of the compliance of their product(s).

Short description of the final product

Once in the shop, the consumer will be able to have information about the origin, the quality, the processing and production of products, and the living conditions of animals coming from a farm that is related to our platform. She/he will do so by scanning a QR-code or a bar-code.This scanning will lead her/him to our platform, on which she/he will be able to see our video clips.

At first, only eggs and milk of direct sellers farmers who agreed to work with us will have a QR-code/bar-code, so only a few products will be concerned. The endpoint is to provide information on many different Austrian products of grocery shops, and try to develop the project in bigger supermarket chains.

Contact Person

h1615657@s.wu.ac.at

Student team

• Aurélie Bégué (BOKU)

• Lou Bernard (BOKU)

• Jan Fromm (WU)

• Christian Kraus (TU)

• Mario Schafzahl (WU)

Projektbetreuung

• Alexander Staub, Msc

• Evgenieea Fillipova, Msc

• DI Dragos-Cristian Vasilescu, BSc