How can we explain the success of anti-waste apps?
10 million tonnes of products thrown away per year, i.e. around €16 billion and 3% of greenhouse gas emissions... Food waste would thus represent a cost of more than 100 euros per year and per person. This is still significant given that 8 out of 10 French people said they had changed their eating habits due to inflation. 87%, according to a survey by Harris Interactive for Cetelem, say they have reduced their food waste.
Béatrice Siadou-Martin, University of Montpellier and Jean-Marc Ferrandi, University of Nantes
Several mobile applications that fight against this scourge appeared less than ten years ago and are booming. They are called Optimiam, Phenix or Too Good to Go. In addition to reducing food waste in restaurants, local shops and supermarkets, they offer consumers a price reduction of at least 30%, when it is not a donation to disadvantaged people. They occur late in the consumption process, when the use-by date is close or the best-before date has passed.
Their use, which we have observed in our work, remains relatively simple, unlike many sustainable gestures that are sometimes difficult to implement or whose benefits are perceived too far away. The adoption rate of these digital devices continues to increase: 38% of French people (i.e. more than one in 3 French people) use these applications. Too Good to Go, the market leader, announces more than 15,300,000 users with a 30% increase of them between 2022 and 2023. That's more than 55 million baskets "saved". Phénix, whose turnover is estimated at around 18 million euros, indicates a 30% increase in baskets sold between 2021 and 2022 for Île-de-France. It has also seen a dramatic increase in users from 2 million in January 2022 to 5 million today.
Planetary Alignment
Three components of this success can be derived from a theoretical model, the COM-B model , which attempts to account for behavioural changes. He highlights three categories of factors, declining the acronym.
First of all, there is the "C", for "physical and psychological capacities of individuals". This first group of factors focuses on the skills and knowledge of individuals. To activate this lever, anti-waste mobile applications have developed educational communication around food waste. Beyond the global figures, they offer a concrete "translation" that is anchored in consumers' daily lives. For example, the Zero-Waste application indicates "1 baguette of bread is equivalent to a bathtub filled with water" and "1 kg of beef corresponds to 15,000 litres of water or 10,000 bottles of 1.5 L". Similarly, apps communicate widely about the number of baskets "saved" or meals "won".
The "O" stands for the physical and social opportunities offered by the context. Anti-waste mobile applications have understood that it is necessary to multiply consumption opportunities while reducing the sacrifices made by consumers. For example, the Phoenix app offers filters that not only allow you to specify your diet but also to indicate the time at which the consumer wants to pick up your basket. This flexibility allows it to take into account its constraints. Similarly, the loyalty program that awards points to each order helps to encourage consumers to take "the routine of ordering" and "using the app". Recently, Too Good To Go has even introduced new services: flash sales for restaurant owners, the possibility of having a package of unsold products delivered to them composed of dry products from major brands and according to a theme (an Italian package, a snack package or an aperitif package for example) or the collection of the basket by a friend...
Finally, the "M" stands for "thoughtful and automatic motivations". The success of anti-waste mobile applications can also be explained by an interesting alignment between the interests of the planet and individual interests that respond to selfish motivations centred on personal savings. Consumers are making a gesture that is "good" for the planet and also "good" for their budget, especially in times of inflation. Some applications also play on the hedonic dimension by offering "surprise baskets" or on the social dimension of behavior by offering referral programs.
What is the value for food?
A particular behavior will be likely to occur if and only if the person concerned has the ability and opportunity to engage in that behavior and is more motivated to engage in that behavior than any other. This model provides a better understanding of the apparent paradoxes of consumer behavior: the delicate articulations between will and power. Its main advantage is the integration of context in a very natural way to explain the behavior adopted.
While initiatives to combat food waste are to be welcomed and encouraged, even if they would sometimes lead to a decrease in donations to humanitarian associations, the effectiveness of the price reduction directly or indirectly raises the question of an effective change in consumers in the long term... Should the reduction of food waste be systematically achieved by offering products at barded prices even though these products have required limited resources (water, agricultural land, etc.)?
In other words, couldn't the fight against waste seek ways to create value through a revaluation of food? This is the path opened up by upcycling, for example, recovering products that are no longer used to transform them into materials of higher utility.
Béatrice Siadou-Martin, Professor of Management Sciences, University of Montpellier and Jean-Marc Ferrandi, Professor of Marketing and Innovation at Oniris, University of Nantes
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