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Sales analysis of regional and fair traded organic products

Project


Project code: 2808OE213
Contract period: 30.12.2008 - 30.04.2010
Budget: 72,142 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research

The aim of this research project was to provide information whether fair and locally traded organic products can be sold successfully in organic food shops. On the one hand, the actual sales of the test products were analysed, on the other hand the impact of the product launch with accompanying sales promotion activities on the total sales within the test products' commodity group was investigated. The analysis comprised tests of two initiatives, namely the BioFair-Verein and the fair & regional-Initiative Berlin-Brandenburg. The sales of the test products were analysed by means of store tests with additional store checks in order to record the test conditions in the stores. To analyse the sales success the average sales surplus per week, which was achieved during the promotion week and the period of ten weeks after, was compared to the four-week period before product introduction. The data collection was managed by the specialised market research institute bioVista by means of scanner data of the cash register system of the test stores. Because the initiatives had considerable problems in planning and conducting the test, the findings are not very instructive. The sales of most of the test products could neither be increased in the short nor in the medium term. Overall, the findings suggest that ethical product attributes as 'fair' and 'local production' do not increase sales per se. They rather imply that the product launch and the implementation of accompanying sales promotion activities have to be planned und implemented professionally on all levels. Whether small associations or initiatives can accomplish this task instead of producers, is at least questionable.

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