Recent declines in pollinator populations have led to widespread concern due to their impact on food/crop production and the environment. Contrary to growing interest in the use of insecticides in urban landscapes, the relationship between pollinator-related eco-labels, visual attention, and preferences for plants is less understood. The present study combines eye tracking and stated preference experiments to examine the effects of pollinator-related labels on consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay. Results show that the pollinator-friendly attribute positively correlates with consumers’ purchasing decisions and visual attention supports that relationship. Implications of mandatory labeling of pesticide content for the horticultural industry are discussed.

Price greatly influences consumers’ purchasing decisions. Individuals whose decisions are primarily driven by price are said to be ‘price conscious’. To date, studies have focused on defining price consciousness and identifying factors that contribute to price-conscious behavior. However, research using visual attention to assess how price conscious consumers use in-store stimuli is limited. Here, consumers’ purchasing decisions are assessed using a rating-based conjoint analysis paired with eye tracking technology when shopping for ornamental plants. An ordered logit model is employed to understand price conscious consumers’ purchase patterns and choice outcomes. Overall, price conscious consumers are less attentive to price information. Being price conscious tends to reduce purchase likelihood, ceteris paribus. Increasing visual attention to price decreases consumers’ purchase likelihood, which is amplified for price conscious consumers. Price conscious consumers tend to be quicker decision makers than non-price conscious consumers. Results are beneficial to retailers interested in targeting or primarily catering to price conscious consumers.

Water quantity and quality concerns in urban environments have prompted conservation groups, governmental agencies, and policy makers to develop and promote residential water conservation programs, including restrictions on residential landscape irrigation practices and incentives for the adoption of water-efficient appliances. Previous literature links household characteristics, financial incentives, and demographic characteristics to the adoption of water-efficient appliances and overall water use. However, relatively little attention has been given toward understanding how homeowners’ perceptions and knowledge of smart irrigation technologies affect their preferences or stated purchase likelihood of such irrigation equipment. To address this gap in the literature, this paper identifies perception- and knowledge-related factors that are correlated with the purchase likelihood of smart irrigation controllers. The generalized logit regression model results suggest that knowledge about irrigation systems and residential landscaping are positively correlated with purchase likelihood. Similarly, homeowners’ perceptions about conservation efforts, water restrictions, and their neighbors’ irrigation habits all increase purchase likelihood. Combined with statistically-significant correlations of several socio-demographic variables and purchase likelihood, these results have theoretical and practical implications, which are summarized in this paper.

A second-price auction with eye movement recordings was used to investigate consumer preferences for labels disclosing the presence and absence of specific types of insecticides and to explore the relationship between visual attention and consumer purchasing behaviors. Findings contribute to the literature in the following ways. First, visual attention pattern was endogenously determined by personal knowledge and pollinator conservation activities. Less knowledgeable or less engaged participants fixated more and for longer durations on the product as a whole rather than other information. Secondly, the first and last gaze cascade effect was confirmed by identifying a significant negative impact of participants’ first and last gaze visits on neonicotinoid labels on their bid values. Third, new evidence was added to the existing literature that the link between visual attention and consumer valuation and preference may be weak. Our results suggest that visual attention could provide useful information toward understanding participants’ bidding behaviors; however, evidence indicates that visual attention measures may not be directly linked with decision making.