Customers and their smartphones are becoming shopping companions
(A2019-8348)

AUTHORS

Philipp Hübner, Jade University of Applied Sciences; Stephan Kull, Jade University of Applied Sciences

KEYWORDS

smartphones; shopping companion; bricks-and-mortar retail

ABSTRACT

This study analyses customers’ usage of smartphones as shopping companions while shopping in bricks-and-mortar retail stores. To do this, different conceptual frameworks and scientific descriptions of the influence of technology on humans are used to develop three constructs: (1) the smartphone-extended self; (2) the smartphone-extended mind; and (3) the smartphone as a supporter for the digital doppelgänger. The main goal of this study is to test a structural equation model. It suggests that these three constructs are affected when customers use their smartphone intensively. The performance of the three constructs increases the compatibility between customers and the use of smartphones as shopping companions, which, in turn, leads to actual usage of smartphones as shopping companions. The model is analysed with a representative sample of 1,757 German smartphone users, and the results support all suggested hypotheses of the structural model.