Consumer acceptance of self-service checkouts in Estonian retail market
(A2020-63005)

AUTHORS

Katri Kerem, Estonian Business School; Sirli Saar, Estonian Business School

KEYWORDS

retailing; self-service; technology acceptance

ABSTRACT

All bigger retailers in Estonia have introduced self-service checkouts into their stores but the customer acceptance has been below expected levels in spite of the long queues in regular checkouts. This qualitative exploratory study aims to understand why the users adopt or resist the seemingly so much more effortless way of doing daily shopping. 10 active self-service users were recruited for interviews to understand their motives and behaviour for using the self-checkout. Equipped with this info accompanied shopping with 5 non-users was conducted in 10 stores. The non-user study had three phases – pre-experience interview, 2 accompanied shopping trips and follow up interview. The results revealed that the main reasons of non-acceptance are fear of failing (on the system and personal level) and overall skepticism. Interestingly time saving was not associated with the service by the non-users. Personal experience resulted in future intention to use only for 3 participants.