UNCERTAINTY: NUDGING SELF-SERVICE TECHNOLOGY USAGE IN SUPERMARKETS THROUGH INDUCED UNCERTAIN WAIT TIME

Abstract

The advent of self-service technology within the retail environment brought about promises of lowered overhead costs for business organizations and speedy experiences for shoppers. However, as with all forms of technology, consumer perception and resistance towards innovations have to be managed and curbed before benefits can be reaped. In this paper, we look into how consumers can be nudged towards self-checkout usage in supermarkets by taking into consideration a multitude of factors ranging from situational influences, perceived waiting time, to choice architecture. Specifically, this dissertation explores how nudges in the form of messages and waiting time information affect self-checkout usage during peak hours when queues are present. Through our field experiment in an actual supermarket, we show that displaying a message encouraging self-checkout usage during peak hours increases selfcheckout usage. Interestingly, when we attempted to further enhance the influence of the message nudge through the inclusion of uncertain waiting time information, self-checkout usage decreased instead. Ultimately, at its core, this paper aims to extend literature on selfservice technology usage by studying actual self-service checkout usage behavior instead of stopping at consumer perception and behavioral intention. Whilst not perfect, our study showcases the complexity of self-service technology usage behavior that have been previously under-researched and hopes to inspire future research in this area. We are hopeful that results from this study will generate insights on factors influencing consumer usage of self-service technology which can be beneficial not just to supermarkets but to the general retail/service industry at large.