Exploring Facilitators and Barriers for Personalized Dietary Incentives Among Online Shoppers at Cardiovascular Risk and Key Informants to Inform an Automated Shopping Platform

Top Things to Know

Personalized incentives can make healthy food a practical prescription.

By integrating recipes, education, and discounts into the shopping experience, Smart Cart 2.0 transforms grocery decisions into clinical interventions.

Features like gamification, social support, and personalized feedback increase motivation and sustainability.

Summary of Conclusion/Findings

This multimethod study evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of Smart Cart 2.0, a personalized dietary incentive application designed to improve online grocery shopping and diet quality among adults at cardiovascular risk. Researchers surveyed and interviewed 20 shoppers and 11 key informants, identifying barriers such as cost, time, and information overload, and facilitators like health motivation and cooking skills. Participants valued Smart Cart 2.0’s integrated features and saw it as a one-stop tool to reduce the cognitive and financial burden of healthy eating. The app was especially appealing for its ability to simplify meal planning and align food choices with health goals. Suggestions for improvement included gamification, social support, and integration with health tracking tools. Overall, Smart Cart 2.0 was deemed a promising platform for scaling Food Is Medicine interventions through retail technology.