Digital Customer Experience – a comparative study between traditional and unmanned supermarkets
(A2023-113449)

AUTHORS

Simon Fauser, University of Southern Denmark / Heilbronn University; Svend Hollensen, Dept. of Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management University of Southern Denmark, Faculty of Social Science; Anna Marie Dyhr Ulrich, Dept. of Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management University of Southern Denmark, Faculty of Social Science; Michael Ottenbacher, Heilbronn University

ABSTRACT

Many retailers are experimenting with innovative shopping concepts. Amongst the offline concepts, unmanned stores are increasingly popular. This study aims at comparing the customer experience of traditional, manned with unmanned, digitalized supermarkets. A questionnaire was created for manned and unmanned stores. Participants acted as silent shoppers and answered the questionnaire after their purchase. They evaluated their perceived shopping experience, especially efficiency and repurchase intention. The framework was tested on a sample of consumers living in Germany. Data from 157 silent shoppers were analysed using majority distribution. Main findings are that unmanned stores are perceived as more efficient than manned stores. Manned stores, however, are associated with a higher repurchase intention. Further leveraging on efficiency of unmanned stores as well as integrating “humanness” has the potential to increase repurchase intention, where they are currently lacking behind.