Consumer preferences for organic labels in Germany using the example of apples - Combining choice-based conjoint analysis and eye-tracking measurements

Organic food products are considered as credence goods. Hence, organic labels are important visual stimuli for consumers to determine how a good was produced. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to the literature by examining the visual attention patterns and preferences of consumers in a choice experiment by measuring their eye movements using eye-tracking technology and comparing the results with the findings from choice-based conjoint analysis (CBCA) and other stated preference methods. For this reason, 73 consumers participated in an experiment in 2017 in Germany. The combination of eye-tracking and CBCA can help to overcome some major limitations of choice experiments. For example, low levels of a attribute's part-worth utility can be caused by the participants low preference regarding that attribute or that he/she just haven't viewed the attribute. Our findings indicate that consumers who gain greater utilities from specific attributes of a good also attend to them visually to a greater extent. The study's results also suggest that a combination of stated preference methods with eye-tracking technology has the potential of solving some major limitations of these methods such as social desirability, memory limitations and lack of visual attention to specific product characteristics.