A new white paper study that tracked the behaviour of over 5,000 people in a virtual reality shopping environment found that most participants adapted to a deposit return scheme (DRS) in seven weeks.
Ribena producer Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I (SBF GB&I) commissioned the white paper – ‘Deposit Return Schemes: What’s in Store?’ – as part of major research into consumer behaviours and attitudes. The research was undertaken by shopper insights agency Shoppercentric Ltd.
The study on consumer behaviours and attitudes found that it took seven weeks for 88% of shoppers to “rethink their relationship with plastic bottles” and to appreciate their value after living with the scheme.
For the white paper, SBF GB&I commenced four distinct behavioural studies involving almost 8,000 people across the UK. The research included placing over 5,500 people in a virtual reality shopping environment to see how they would react when a theoretical deposit return scheme was introduced.
These systems work brilliantly abroad. We need them to be as simple and similar as possible across the UK to avoid complexity and confusion for retailers and shoppers
Further studies with another group were focused on understanding how consumers lived with deposit return schemes over 8 weeks.
As part of this research, SBF GB&I says it discovered shoppers experience a three-stage mental shift when required to pay a deposit, which it categorises as Surprise, Review and Reset.
Director for Commercial Sustainability at SBF GB&I, Keith Allen, said: “As one of the market leading branded soft drinks companies we are passionately committed to deposit return schemes to ensure that the right conditions exist for a truly circular economy so that our bottles and cans are used again and again.
“These systems work brilliantly abroad. We need them to be as simple and similar as possible across the UK to avoid complexity and confusion for retailers and shoppers, so they have every chance of succeeding.”