Price manipulation is an important tool for driving consumer food purchasing choices. Retailers use several strategies to reduce the price of products, including discounts, coupons, rewards, and time-limited deals. In the online environment, these discounts can be tailored to the consumer’s preferences, such as through personalized coupons or deals based on purchasing history. Retailers also have more opportunities to feature discounts available online, as they can highlight more coupons in a digital than print format. Price reductions are often paired with other marketing strategies in the online space, such as placement and promotion. 

Scorecard categories and components: Pricing 

Component	Definition	Example Image
Discount	A reduced-price offer
Two-for-one Deal	Any kind of buy one get one free deal
Coupon	Discounts that can be redeemed at checkout
Points or voucher	Accrual of rewards that can be redeemed for savings
Loyalty program exclusive	Savings only for loyalty program members
Time-limited deal	Special deals that are valid for a set period to incentive food purchase within a specific period of time
Weekly flyer	Link of flyer showing discounted products of the week

In brick-and-mortar stores, the in-store location of products can influence purchasing behaviors. Manufacturers largely control where retailers can place products on shelves, which products are at eye level, and which products to group together through CMAs. Similar arrangements may apply to the digital grocery store and dictate how retailers use personalized placement strategies such as offering sponsored recommendations (e.g., exposure to sponsored popular, seasonal, or best matched products), cross-promotion (i.e., suggesting sponsored complementary products), and search result ordering (e.g., sponsored products appearing before other products) online.

Scorecard categories and components: Placement

Component	Definition	Example Image
Recommended	Products or categories grouped under headings (e.g. most popular, best match, featured) that are recommended by the retailer and can be instantly added to the shopping cart
Sponsored	Any recommended product described as a sponsored or featured, or promoted via paid ads
Cross-promotion	Marketing of complementary products

Brick-and-mortar stores use promotional strategies such as displays, signage, featured advertising, and point-of-purchase information (e.g., nutrition information). These can include promotions targeting children, such as character licensing or using “fun” packaging designs. Online retailers also use numerous promotional strategies, such as title card and banner advertisements, branded site content (e.g., branded imagery, recipes, and interactive content), user feedback (e.g., rating and reviews), links to social media pages, and retailer generated shopping lists.

Scorecard categories and components: Promotion

Component	Definition	Example Image
Banner advertisement	Rectangular internet display advertising format driving visitors to a post-click landing page, featuring food or beverages
Title card	Large panel imagery and text at the top of the page featuring foods or beverages, typically below page headers
Branded product imagery	Branded product images are displayed on the site to illustrate grocery categories or departments
Branded recipe or meal solution	Instructions to make a meal, recommended foods to eat together as a meal, or meal kits contain branded products
Branded interactive content	Dynamic site content such as pop-ups, splash pages, videos, tutorials, or games containing branded products
Promoted product swap	A similar product that is recommended as an alternative
Retailer generated shopping list	Shopping lists or carousel of items recommended by the retailer that can be easily added to cart

Usability refers to how effectively and efficiently users can understand, navigate, and interact with websites and tools, and accessibility ensures the user experience is equitable for all people, including those with disabilities. This scorecard evaluates aspects of website usability as it could influence who can shop online and what products are selected. Customization tools, such as allergen and nutrition-related filters, product comparison tools, and the ability to customize what nutrition information is displayed, can all improve and tailor the online shopping experience to the consumer. Features that increase website accessibility for people with disabilities (e.g., allowing users to change text size, sufficient color contrast) can make the online shopping experience more inclusive. Features that improve information accessibility, such as website content available in different languages, can make it easier for all consumers to shop for products that fit their needs. Additionally, acceptance of online SNAP and WIC benefits makes online grocery shopping more accessible for households with limited financial resources.

Scorecard categories and components: Usability

• Shift online marketing practices (product, pricing, placement, and promotion) to incentivize healthier food and beverage purchases. Retailers should increase offerings of healthier products, use price marketing strategies on healthy items, place healthy products in prominent locations in the virtual grocery store, and promote healthy products throughout the digital shopping experience to make it easier for customers to make healthy choices.
• Structure cooperative marketing agreements (CMAs) to promote healthier products within food and beverage manufacturer's portfolios. Retailers should work with food and beverage manufacturers to structure CMAs to promote healthier products instead of less healthy products within their product portfolios.
• Improve online food accessibility for customers using SNAP. Apply for United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) equal treatment waivers to waive delivery and service fees on SNAP purchases.4 This will remove barriers to online grocery shopping and improve food access for customers participating in SNAP. Additionally, improve the user experience for customers using SNAP online by clearly disclosing SNAP acceptance and labeling SNAP-eligible items. Retailers could take similar measures as online WIC rolls out.
• Ensure compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines requirements and improve customer customization and website language accessibility. Meeting web accessibility guidelines (e.g. text and background color contrast and content compatibility with assistive technologies) could make the online food shopping environment more accessible to people with disabilities. Providing website content in non-English language options can make the online food environment more accessible to non-English speaking customers.
• Enable customers to find healthy products with nutrition rating systems and customize their shopping experience based on their nutritional needs with dietary-related filters. Customer customization tools such as dietary-related filters or nutrition classification systems support purchasing of foods that meet specific dietary needs. Retailers could develop filters based on FDA’s definitions for nutrient content claims that consumers can apply when shopping online to view only “healthy” foods or avoid “high in” foods.

• Require accessible Nutrition Facts panels, ingredients, and allergens for all foods and beverages sold online. Congress should pass legislation that requires accurate, legible, and easily accessible information for all foods and beverages at the online point of sale. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should issue guidance on best practices for online labeling and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) should issue regulations that require retailers participating in SNAP to provide complete product information. This would help support healthier and safer food choices, especially for people with food allergies and those managing diet-related health conditions.
• Ensure that future federal labeling and marketing policies are inclusive of the online environment. Labeling requirements that support healthier choices should apply to both in-store and online environments to impact all shoppers.
• Establish retailer healthy placement standards in-store and online. Congress and state/local governments should pass legislation requiring healthy placement practices (e.g., healthy checkout bills) for all retailers to make it easier for customers to avoid marketing and impulse purchases of less nutritious items and specify how these policies should apply online. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should issue guidance on best practices for healthy placement in online food retail, and USDA should create healthy placement standards for SNAP-authorized retailers.
• Investigate how retailer marketing practices contribute to anti-competitiveness and pose a threat to consumer health. The FTC should investigate the impact of marketing practices (e.g., CMAs, category captain arrangements) on competition and act to ensure fair competition while protecting consumers from the marketing of unhealthy products.

• Pilot and evaluate healthy marketing interventions in the online retail food environment. Researchers and food retailers should collaborate to co-design, implement, and evaluate healthy marketing interventions to identify strategies that can improve healthy purchases and food and nutrition security.
• Conduct research with consumers to better understand the online shopping experience. “Shop-along” research with consumers can complement this scorecard to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the online shopping experience, including impacts of personalized and targeted marketing. Focus groups or interviews with consumers can also identify barriers and facilitators of healthy online food purchasing and examine how these factors vary across sociodemographic groups.