An analysis into early customer experiences of self-service checkouts: Lessons for improved usability (original) (raw)
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The number of self-checkout systems in stores has increased exponentially in the past 5 years becoming a common way for consumers to complete their purchases. Little research has been conducted in this pervasive area, however, other than market research studies. An online survey found that although individuals use self-checkout systems a great deal, there are a number of issues and concerns with these systems. The most cited difficulties that arise when using self-checkout systems included the barcode not scanning as well as slow customers ahead in the line. These findings including others noted throughout this paper highlight a number of opportunities for human factors professionals to make the design of selfcheckout systems more user-friendly.
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Self-service technologies are increasing everywhere, and customers are proactively embracing them. For retailers, large-scale use is a prerequisite for successful investment in such technologies. This study attempts to investigate the factors in shoppers’ intentions to use self-checkout systems (SCSs) across Dublin grocery stores. It also identifies the relationship between their intention and actual usage of SCSs. Furthermore, it examines the influence of control variables (i.e. age, gender, education level, and the number of items purchased) on SCS usage. The research builds on the technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis et al., 1989) by developing a conceptual framework. The base TAM model has been expanded by incorporating additional constructs derived from prior literature on self-service technologies (SSTs). Thus, this thesis followed a deductive research approach with a quantitative methodology. Data was collected using a structured online questionnaire with a sample of 315 study participants. Six hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. Most of the research hypotheses were supported. The association between intention to use SCSs and actual use was partially confirmed. Findings indicated that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, shorter perceived waiting time, and negative technology anxiety strongly supports customers who intend to use SCSs. While a customer may have a high intention to use the SCSs, it is less probable to use them without situational triggers like shopper's basket size. Perceived ease of use of SCSs has a significant effect on SCSs customer's usage. To conclude, shoppers' actual usage of SCSs depends on various motivations from situational factors to demographic characteristics. Thus, to get SCS usage, retailers should ensure that SCS interfaces are user-friendly and reduce queuing time. Retailers must regularly facilitate shoppers' ease of using SCSs to enhance the perceived usefulness and reduce technology anxiety, leveraging customer analytics for implementing shopper’s specific adoption strategies. A strong push by the Irish government to promote such SSTs, collaborating technology providers and retailers to engage with the new breed of shoppers. Finally, based on the findings, it was suggested for future research into situational factors and SCS technical characteristics, to explore the more in-depth connection between intention to use and actual utilization of SCSs.
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2018
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The impact of Self-scan checkouts on customer satisfaction at Sainsbury’s, Whitechapel store.
Self-scan checkout (SSC) is a technology based self-service option where customers scan, bag and pay for their shopping without the assistance of a human cashier. It is being used increasingly by retailers especially large supermarkets, to deliver superior customer value and service by reducing checkout times. . There are some studies available on technology based self-service options, however little is known about the impact of SSCs on customer satisfaction especially in a supermarket context. This study was carried out to investigate the overall impact of SSCs on the level of customer satisfaction at Sainsbury’s Whitechapel store. Structured observation and a questionnaire survey were carried out to assess how SSCs were used and the level of customer satisfaction. With some modifications, the SERVPERF model was use to measure perceived service quality of customer who actually use SSCs and their practical experiences of service encounters with SSCs. The findings of the study are useful for Sainsbury’s to understand how customers perceive the service quality of self-scan checkout and so as to try to improve the service quality and hence customer satisfaction. The study found that men and younger people are more likely to use self-scan checkout than women and older people. The study also found that customers experienced several problems during the service encounter with the self-scan checkout. Among those problems, problem with ‘unwanted item in bagging area’ and problem with ‘approval needed’ for age restricted items are the most commonly experienced problems. Most problems, especially ‘unwanted item in bagging area arose due to mistakes of customers or not following instructions properly. Other problems depend on the level of customers’ technological skills and ability, level of technology anxiety, lack of system reliability, and some problems due to poor design of SSC’s technology. Recommendations are provided about how to solve or minimise the problems with the SSCs in order to improve the service quality of SSCs and level of customer satisfaction. Some key recommendations are: to allow SSCs attendants to approve age restricted items from a monitoring unit and developing a remote approval system to minimise problems with age restricted items and helping to train customers on how to operate SSCs efficiently to reduce problem with ‘unwanted item in bagging area’.
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The last decade has seen an increased focus by retailers on using new technologies to deliver their services. The introduction of self-service technologies (SSTs) opens up for retailers the potential of improving productivity and service quality while cutting costs. However previous forays by retailers to get their customers to try these self-service technologies have not been proven to be quite successful. Previous empirical research on the usage of technology based self-services has mainly focused on antecedents of attitude towards and corresponding behavioral intentions to use. However, little empirical research has linked these variables to actual behavior in a real life setting. To address these issues, we collected a combination of survey and observational data using self-scanning lanes as objects of investigation. We identify ease of use, usefulness, fun, and reliability as drivers of attitude towards the SST, which in turn significantly predict actual usage of the SST. We al...
The effect of self-checkout quality on customer satisfaction and repatronage in a retail context
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Self-service technologies (SSTs) are defined as technological interfaces that enable customers to produce a service without direct employee involvement. Among various SSTs, self-checkouts are being tested by grocery stores across the world. However, while most studies focus on SST adoption, there is limited research on its impact on service quality, customer satisfaction, and retention. Our study investigates consumers' assessments of self-checkout in a retail outlet, and its influence on post-usage intentions. The study presents a causal model in order to determine (i) whether consumers evaluate service quality for self-checkout based on five different attributes: speed, ease-of-use, control, reliability, and enjoyment; (ii) whether the evaluation of service quality differs according to demographics and usage frequency; and finally (iii) if service quality delivered by self-checkout relates to overall customer satisfaction and retail patronage. We conclude that successful use of self-checkout may ''tie'' consumers to a provider, representing a feature that differentiates a retailer from competitors.