Connected wine packaging in retail: quantifying customer interaction and preferences for wine information

Purpose This research explores wine customer interaction with connected packaging in retail, offering insights for wine producers to enhance customer behavioural engagement strategies. The study aims to understand patterns of customer visual attention and information preferences in the context of connected packaging. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts an empirics-first (EF) approach, including a two-study mixed-method research design. EF is particularly suited to exploring emerging customer behaviours in innovative technological contexts. Study One uses Google Analytics and Tag Manager to measure connected packaging users’ visual attention and behavioural engagement. Study Two uses maximum difference scaling to assess user preferences for wine attributes in retail. Findings Study One reveals distinct patterns of user behavioural engagement. Highly engaged users exhibit deeper interaction with product, brand and sustainability information, often revisiting content. First-time users focus on top-of-page content before disengaging. Study Two results corroborate the importance of product information (grape variety, wine style and region of origin), with highly involved wine consumers showing greater interest in connected packaging. Originality/value This research advances the understanding of connected packaging user interaction and information preferences, an area previously underexplored. It demonstrates the potential of connected packaging for enhancing ongoing customer behavioural engagement and providing additional product information. The study’s innovative EF approach, combining real-world behavioural data with preference analysis, supports and extends existing research on wine attribute preferences while demonstrating the potential of connected packaging as an ongoing value co-creation tool.