Customer experience in physical retailing : balancing the mix of human-technology factors in the service encounter

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Supervisor: Emilio Bellini

Co-supervisor: Federico Artusi

Master’s Thesis by:

David Alfonso Beltran Ramirez

ID Number: 894434

A.Y. 2020/2021

Politecnico Di Milano

Double Degree: Management Engineering & Design

MSc Management Engineering

School of Industrial and Information Engineering

MSc Product Service System Design

School of Design

Customer Experience in Physical Retailing:

Balancing the mix of human-technology

factors in the service encounter

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Abstract in English

Customer experience in retail has been constantly developing, given the fact that there are each time more and more knowledgeable customers, and novel technology that expand the offerings possibilities.This is bringing retail to a scenario where it is crucial to understand the best way to balance the extent in which their customers are interacting with the innovative technology, and the expert associates and take advantage of the most valuable benefits from these interactions. Therefore, this study was aimed to understand how to best balance the mix of human-technology actors in the customer service encounter in the retail physical stores. To achieve this, it was conducted a systematic research of scientific literature and real retail applications as examples that gave the support to suggest a framework that can give additional tools to managers in the moment of designing the customer experience in their stores. In particular, it was analyzed and studied 11 case studies from 7 different retail sectors, which reflected different applications of human and technology interactions within the service encounter. By this, the interactions were segmented according to two different main objectives, time optimization and enhancing the experience. The resulting framework might allow readers and managers understand the benefits and opportunities when balancing the mix of human-technology factors on the customer interactions within the planned customer experience in physical retailing.

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Abstract in italiano

L'esperienza del cliente nella vendita al dettaglio è in costante evoluzione, soprattutto visto i clienti sempre più informati e le nuove tecnologie che ampliano le possibilità di offerta. Questo sta portando la vendita al dettaglio in uno scenario in cui è fondamentale comprendere il modo migliore per bilanciare la misura in cui i loro clienti interagiscono con le nuove tecnologie e il personale di front-end, per trarre il massimo vantaggio da queste interazioni. Questa tesi ha lo scopo di capire come bilanciare al meglio il mix di attori umano-tecnologici nell’esperienza cliente di negozi fisici al dettaglio. Per raggiungere questo obiettivo, è stata condotta una ricerca sistematica della letteratura scientifica e delle applicazioni reali di vendita al dettaglio come esempi che hanno dato il supporto per suggerire un framework che può fornire strumenti aggiuntivi ai manager nel momento di progettare la customer experience nei loro negozi. In particolare, sono stati analizzati e studiati 11 casi di studio da 7 diversi settori di vendita al dettaglio, che riflettono diverse applicazioni delle interazioni umane e tecnologiche all'interno dell’esperienza retail. In questo modo, le interazioni sono state segmentate in base a due diversi obiettivi principali, l'ottimizzazione del tempo e il miglioramento dell'esperienza. La struttura risultante potrebbe consentire ad accademici e manager di comprendere i vantaggi e le opportunità derivanti dal bilanciamento del mix di fattori umano-tecnologici all’interno dell’esperienza cliente pianificata nel negozio retail.

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

Efficient + Convenient ... 79

5.1.2. Enhanced experience

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Augmented + Differential ... 87

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6. Conclusions ... 99

6.1. Managerial implications ... 101

6.2. Limitations and future research... 104

Annexes ... 106

Annex 1 – Case studies: Customer interactions summary... 106

Annex 2 – Case studies detailed evaluation ... 109

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List of Figures

Figure 1. Instructions for Amazon Go & Amazon Go Grocery shopping. Source: Amazon.com ... 23

Figure 2. Amazon Go wireframes. Source: Apple app store ... 24

Figure 3. Amazon Go entrance. Source: (Humanlytics, 2018) ... 24

Figure 4. Amazon Go employees sorting products. Source: Amazon.com ... 25

Figure 5. LaESSE self-checkout station. Source: Author's ... 28

Figure 6. LaESSE shop online and lockers station. Source: Author's ... 28

Figure 7. LaESSE wine expert call button. Source: Author's ... 29

Figure 8. Nike Speed Shop. Source: Nike.com ... 31

Figure 9. Nike Arena. Source: Nike.com ... 31

Figure 10. Nike Live pick-up lockers & Unlock box. Source: Nike.com ... 33

Figure 11. Nike App. Source: Nike.com ... 36

Figure 12. Decathlon in Milan, Cairoli. Source: Decathlon.it ... 38

Figure 13. Kiosks for product information at Decathlon Milan, Portello. Source: Author's ... 40

Figure 14. Self-checkout stations at Decathlon Milan, Portello. Source: Author's ... 40

Figure 15. LEGO Store in the UK. Source: LEGO ... 42

Figure 16. LEGO Digital Box. Source: LEGO ... 43

Figure 17. LEGO in-store Action app. Source: LEGO ... 44

Figure 18. Robot delivering food at the Robot Restaurant. Source: (Norzom, 2019) ... 45

Figure 19. Queen robot. Source: (Norzom, 2019) ... 47

Figure 20. Robots celebrating a visitor's birthday party. Source: The Indian Express... 47

Figure 21. Creator interior. Source: Creator.rest ... 49

Figure 22. Creator automatic cooking machine. Source: Creator.rest ... 50

Figure 23. Creator sharing tables and book library. Source: Forbes ... 50

Figure 24. Creator cooking machine design. Source: Creator.rest ... 52

Figure 25 Creator's tablet and staff devices. Source: Canales, 2020 ... 52

Figure 26. Neiman Marcus Memory Mirror. Source: Neiman Marcus ... 55

Figure 27. Neiman Marcus Memory Makeup Mirror. Source: Neiman Marcus ... 56

Figure 28. Neiman Marcus Style Advisor profile. Source: Neiman Marcus ... 57

Figure 29. LoweBot. Source: Lowe's ... 60

Figure 30. Holoroom How To and Holoroom Test Drive. Source: Lowe's ... 61

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Figure 32. IKEA Kitchen quick quoter. Source: IKEA ... 64

Figure 33. IKEA Planning Studio of Sydney interior and digital screens. Source IKEA ... 65

Figure 34. Design session in Sydney's IKEA Planning Studio. Source: IKEA... 66

Figure 35. Co-design session in Tottenham Planning Studio . Source: IKEA ... 66

Figure 36. Today at Apple session. Source: Apple ... 68

Figure 37. Creative Pro broadcasting on wall displays. Source: Apple ... 69

Figure 38. Small group session using forum display. Source: Christoffel’s Blog ... 70

Figure 39. Today at Apple session teaching how to create their own AR experiences. Source: Apple .. 70

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List of Tables

Table 1. List of case studies by category... 20 Table 2. Case Studies evaluation results... 74

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List of Diagrams

Diagram 1. The Four Realms of an Experience. Source: Author’s representation from Pine II & Gilmore

(1998) framework... 8

Diagram 2. Amazon Go Customer Journey. Source: Author’s ... 23

Diagram 3. LaESSE customer journey. Source: Author's ... 27

Diagram 4. Nike Shop customer journey. Source: Author's ... 34

Diagram 5. Nike Expert Studio customer journey. Source: Author's ... 35

Diagram 6. Decathlon customer journey. Source: Author's ... 39

Diagram 7. LEGO Store customer journey. Source: Author's ... 43

Diagram 8. Robot Restaurant customer journey. Source: Author's ... 46

Diagram 9. Creator customer journey. Source: Author's ... 51

Diagram 10. Neiman Marcus customer journey. Source: Author’s ... 55

Diagram 11. Lowe's Customer Journey. Source: Author's ... 59

Diagram 12. Ikea Planning Studio Customer Journey. Source: Author's ... 64

Diagram 13. Today at Apple customer journey. Source: Author's ... 69

Diagram 14. Case study evaluation map. Source: Author's ... 74

Diagram 15. Customer retail experience framework. Source: Author's. ... 77

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Executive Summary

Introduction

To introduce thesis project, it has been described basic concepts that are constantly referred to throughout all the research process, just as Retail, Customer Experience, Service Encounter, and Customer Journey. Likewise, it has been introduced different type of technology applications in retail physical stores innovations, explaining the most frequent ones from the research findings. So, a retail context in which there is a high competitiveness, where constantly new multifaceted businesses are entering and offering omnichannel environments that load consumers with information about all kind of goods and services, has been described. Alongside, with the need to offer a superior customer experience and the importance of understanding and managing customer interactions and engagement levels in the service encounter. Finally, it has been limited the aim of the project to study the service encounters in retailing and the role of human and technology factors in the interactions with customers and the effect in their retail experience. This by starting with a description and contextualization of scientific understanding of the service encounters and customers interactions at physical retail stores, followed by real examples analysis that conducted to a customer experience framework in terms of human and technology interactions and the goal behind the encounter.

Literature Review

The Literature Review chapter is aimed to congregate the scientific research that have been done in relation to the customer experience in retailing, the service encounter at the physical store, focusing in the roles of human and technology elements within the interactions carried out by customers in it. Consequently, by describing the scientific context of the service encounter in retailing, and the roles for employees and technology applications that have been studied before, it was reached a focused research question to conduct the study to be developed.

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x Customer experience in retailing

The customer experience is presented mostly as a concept that is constantly developing and adapting according to the ecosystems and technology development. Starting from studies made from the ‘shopping experience’ determined by the interaction between the customer and salespersons and the multi-sensory atmosphere. It was evidenced how customers perceive traditional values that facilitates the visit (interaction with employees, product selection and layout) as drivers for a positive customer experience. In particular, to have easy interactions between the customer and the firm, consistency of the message across all communication channels, providing multiple channels to interact and shop, and finally, being responsive to customer needs.

Connected to the seek to be responsive to customer needs, retailers are exploring what technology, employees and social media can give to better understand their customers. Looking forward to offering positive experiences by involving multiple in-store aspects, from personnel, interior design, price, and new technological solutions. Moreover, how convenient, and effective the visit to the store were included in most of the positive experiences.The combination between traditional store aspects (personnel behavior and product accessibility) with technology that enhance them, is being recognized by retailers and customers as a driver that result in a positive store visit experience.

In-store Service Encounter

The service encounter at the retail physical store is constituted by different perspective, those of employees, customers, and the company. It integrates the interactions with people, physical elements, service processes, and technologies and it is crucial to align and stablish the roles for each encounter component to resolve in positive experiences. In this way, role performance depends in the integration and readiness by the human part, driven by the clarity of the role, the ability to execute it and the motivation to always perform it the best way.

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Focusing on the employees role in the service encounter, it is acknowledged how influential it is in the resulted customer experience and service process, given that retailers are prioritizing the management of the interactions between employees and customers. Consumers are not only visiting the store to shop, but also to have the social benefit with the service encounter community by sharing opinions, advices, suggestions, and collaborative activities. They value from employee interactions the functional intrinsic benefits and the social benefit from casual conversations the feeling of social involvement. Employees play a vital role in the retail environment, influencing the innovation outcomes, and orienting and coordinating the customer collaboration and involvement, as well as technology performance and progress.

On the other hand, technology is intended to solve different traditional, also emerging, challenges in the retailing environment. The most diffused role is that of increasing efficiency and productivity of retail store processes (crowded spaces, limited opening hours, sales assistants availability and presence, limited exhibition space, and slow payment processes). By this, customers are benefited by reducing the invested time, effort, and cost in the service encounter, plus enriching their overall experience with extra features. Alongside, employees can redirect their dedicated time, energy, and resources to less repetitive and more valued activities, focusing on more developed roles that bring innovative solutions for customers, and relationships building. This brings smart technology systems, which systematically bring together the tools to enable frontline employees and customers to learn and cocreate value through in-store interactions.

In consequence, customers are being transformed into more informed, conscious, and engaged actors, giving firms, especially front-line employees, an amplified responsibility to provide an enhanced information and value offering superior to what a technology application can provide. Bringing to the retailer, the need of balancing between front line employees and technology resources in the service enocounter in the retail sector in the way that it benefies the most the customer experience and the company’s intentions. In consequence, it has been formulated the research question as “How to best balance the mix of human-technology actors in the customer service encounter in the retail physical stores?”. By this, the further research was targeted to

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directly answer this question and to come out with a suggested framework that may help the way retailers are balancing the human and technology factors within their service encounters.

Research Methodology

In order to proceed with a connection of the findings and answer the research question it was necessary to proceed with a research of real examples that can support the statements found from scientific articles and bring a broader understanding of the way retailers are balancing the interactions of their customers with employees and technology elements. For this reason, a selection of suitable case studies and a research of secondary resources was carried out, so that it could provide the necessary information to comprehend the way they approach the customer interactions within the service encounters at their physical stores.

It has been selected eleven different retail examples from 7 different industries, including groceries, sports articles, children toys, restaurants, footwear and clothing, home furnishing and improvement, , and electronics. The selection followed a research focused on retail companies that are characterized by having recently applied innovative customer experiences within their physical stores, either oriented to technology or to human interactions. Then, a qualitatively rigorous inductive study and analysis was to be continued for each one of them with the purpose of understanding the main interactions within the customer journey of the physical stores.

Findings

For each case study selected, it has been synthesized a general description of the business model, along with a descriptive customer journey that reflect the interactions with employees and technology factors, and an overview of the interactions with humans and technology in the service encounter, with additional exploration that includes third party comments, personal experiences and reviews. In this way, it has been understood in a bigger picture the strategies and implications of the factors involved in the customer interactions. Consequently, it was suggested a framework matrix which differentiate the orientation towards technology and

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human interactions, as well as the orientation to aim the interaction to time optimization or enhancing the customer experience.

Following the suggested framework (described and analyzed in the discussion chapter), the case studies were evaluated and positioned in the four quadrants. The evaluation was aimed to quantify the qualitative found information and generate scores that will result in the related position. In the first quadrant (Human + Time optimization) it was placed Decathlon, Lego, and Creator; in the second (Human + Enhanced experience) it was placed Nike Expert Studios, Today at Apple, and IKEA Planning Studio; in the third (Technology + Time optimization) it was placed Amazon Go, Robot Restaurant, LaESSE, and Nike Shop; for the fourth (Technology + Enhanced experience) it was placed Lowe’s and Neiman Marcus.

Discussion

In each of the selected case studies the customer interactions within the store are supported by technology tools, but the level in which employees interact with customers vary completely, going from totally automatized stores (Amazon Go, LaESSE, Robot Restaurant) to stores with dedicated field expert employees (IKEA, Lowe’s, Apple). From the literature review and the case studies research it was extracted two type of focus or goals for the employees and technology roles in the service encounter in the retail store:

1. time optimization, where it is intended to make the customer visit as fast and effective as possible

2. enhance the experience, offer a differentiating and augmented customer experience that will give value to the store and to the brand.

In consequence, it was suggested a framework that combines the two different objectives approaches and the two actors involved (human and technology). Starting with ‘Time Optimization’, it refers to the effectiveness and convenience of the encounter, focusing on the traditional values of easy and fast store visits. When it is combined with human driven interactions , employees are responsible to trigger the visit optimization by using their expertise

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and customer exploration, entering into the ‘Support’ scenario as one of the framework quadrants. Customers act as enablers, guiding and advising how to correctly perform the respective roles of customers and technology, just as LEGO Brick specialists, Decathlon sports experts do in their respective service encounters. Also, as coordinators, employees lead the different involved actors to perform as intended in the designed service encounter and result in positive outcomes. Ex. Creator staff members coordinate customized orders and the cooking tool performance. Roles that are accomplished by offering a personal assistance and customized recommendations through social and human contact, meanwhile supporting, and coordinating internal processes and technology proper functionality.

On the other hand, when Time Optimization is combined with technology driven interactions, the experience is oriented to be as convenient as possible through technology usage, entering into the ‘Convenience’ scenario and framework quadrant. In this matter, technology is oriented to replace human inputs by performing the rudimentary tasks that employees were performing previously, just as checkout payment, product information and location, and store guidance. Alongside, RFID tagging, as a diffused technology in this aim, combines the improvement of customer convenience, plus internal retail’s logistics optimization, offering a more complete and precise view of inventory and help meeting consumer demand real time.

Passing to the second aim approach, Enhanced Experience, it is focused on augmenting the service offering and differentiate the encounter for unique brand building, thanks to the customization and learning provided by employees expertise and smart technology elements. In the scenario of Guide/Buddy, where Enhanced Experience is combined with Human oriented interactions, front-line employees are focused on the social level and to accomplish a position of a buddy or supporter who make customers feel close to. Staff members assist directly customers based on their own expertise and skills and use technology as complementary tools to empower them with more complete information and engage customers in a tailored experience. Following the concept that humans are a valuable source of creativity and innovation that cannot be entirely substituted by technology. Employees are positioned as crucial resources for differentiation and competitiveness. The non-replicability of the human touch is a differential factor that display unique behaviors related to the brand. Through the one-to-one personalized

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service and the call to be actively involved in the design process, customers inevitably start building a strong relationship with the specialist employees and the company brand, encouraging the supporter and buddy role.

Finally, the fourth quadrant and scenario, named ‘Go Beyond’, combines the aim to enhance the experience and technology-oriented interactions. In particular, innovative technology, as primary actors, are intended to differentiate the service encounter. With the use of VR, AR and/or touchscreens, customers are able to expand their experience in the store and find positive stimuli that may increase the chances of buying, of brand retention and loyalty, focused on going beyond the traditional product display and selection, offering a completely different interaction with the products and the brand. Additionally, in this scenario technology acts as network facilitator, enabling connections and relationships among different entities in the service encounter, such as customers, employees, technology, products, and the retailer.

Following the evaluation conducted on the case studies selected it is evidenced positioning trend, with interactions that are technology oriented towards the time optimization intention, and the interactions that are humans oriented towards enhancing the customer experience. Interactions with front line employees seek to take advantage of human capabilities and skills that may be too difficult or impossible to replicate with technology elements. On the other hand, technology elements have a significant advantage over employees performances on repetitive and predictable tasks, in terms of costs and invested time, and at the same time it enables employees to focus their time to assist visitors in more specialized matters. Alongside, the adoption of innovative applications and devices can perform an important role in the pursuit of offering differentiating encounters that customers will value and generate certain loyalty. New developments in retail innovation is focused to the enhancement of experiences, bringing technological applications to an upper level: supporting and optimizing the encounter convenience, and at the same time differentiate the service offering and enhance customer’s retail stores experience.

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xvi Conclusions

With the aim to understand how to best balance the mix of human-technology actors in the customer service encounter in the retail physical stores from different industry sectors. It was understood how interactions could be segmented according to two different main objectives, being optimizing the service encounter or to enhance it by offering services that go beyond of what customers are expecting, resulting in the suggest a framework.

In conclusion, the results after mapping the case studies and analyzing how they balanced the customer interactions with front line employees and technology elements, it was found the trend to optimize the customer’s purchase process with interactions mainly driven by technology in the customer encounter, offering an elevated convenience where the solutions that customers need are delivered in a fast and effective way. On the other hand, customer interactions with front line employees showed a trend to be focused on high expertise associates who offer enhancing experiences that engage customers beyond traditional offerings, reflected on a dedicated service along with a guide and buddy role. Likewise, it was recognized how technology in retail innovation has been redirecting on the enhancement of customer experiences in the retail physical store, being developed as the main experience trigger or a complement tool for the performance of employees in this role.

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1. Introduction

To introduce the study made, it is necessary to understand some basic concepts that will be constantly referred throughout all the research process, just as Retail, Customer Experience, Service Encounter, and Customer Journey. Likewise, it is introduced different type of technology applications in retail physical stores, explaining the most diffused and later mentioned in the research. Finally, it is introduced the problem setting, starting with an overview of the retail context in which the study was developed, followed by a description of the main objective of the research project, as well as the way to achieve the obtained final thoughts.

1.1. Key definitions:

Retail: “A business or person that sells goods to the consumer, as opposed to a wholesaler or

supplier, who normally sell their goods to another business” (BusinessDictionary, 2020).

Customer Experience: “involves the customer’s cognitive, affective, emotional, social and

physical responses to the retailer. This experience is created not only by those elements which the retailer can control (e.g., service interface, retail atmosphere, assortment, price), but also by elements that are outside of the retailer’s control (e.g., influence of others, purpose of shopping)” (Verhoef, et al., 2009, p. 32).

Service Encounter: “Any discrete interaction between the customer and the service provider

relevant to a core service offering, including the interaction involving provision of the core service offering itself” (Voorhees, et al., 2017, p. 270).

Customer Journey: “It is a visual depiction of the sequence of events through which customers

may interact with a service organization during an entire purchase process” (Rosenbaum, et al., 2017, p. 144).

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1.2. Technology applications at Retail stores

Following the later explained retail context in which the research is set, where many stores have incorporated huge number of smart technology innovations into the interaction with customers, there are some types and characteristics of them that are more frequent and widely diffused. Among them, mobile apps, scan-and-go technologies, interactive touchscreens, self-checkouts, radio frequency identification systems (RFID), and robotics stand out. The definitions and explanations of these concepts are listed below:

Mobile Apps: Take advantage of technology incorporated in smartphones, just as: localization

for geo-fenced targeted offers, Augmented and Virtual Reality through the camera and screen combination, Incorporated Artificial Intelligence for better responsive apps, and constant access to the online environment.

Scan-and-go: With the use of smartphone built-in technology, plus computer vision,

sensor fusion and deep learning technologies incorporated into sensors and computers inside the store, customers can scan items as they shop and then use the retailer’s app to pay.

Interactive touchscreens: Displays in stand-alone kiosks or wall clustered in the retail store

constantly connected to the internet, that by scanning the products, customers can explore additional information just as the price, size, colors, store inventory, and extra reviews; and at the same time connect with the online store to create orders directly from the touchscreens. Moreover, it is possible to incorporate cameras, and image recognition with artificial intelligence technology to offer augmented reality visualization of the products.

Self-checkouts: Helps shoppers scan, bag, and pay for products without any need to interact with

a cashier. Customers thus gain control; retailers enjoy reduced labor costs from the fewer number of cashiers required (Grewal, et al., 2017, p. 2).

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3 Service Robots: With the combination of different technologies, such as autonomous navigation,

product scanning, artificial intelligence and machine learning, these robots can autonomously offer customers additional services or services before offered by front-line employees in the retail physical store (Larivière, et al., 2017).

Radio Frequency Identification systems (RFID): Item tags that work as wireless sensors

transferring electronic information through radio waves and can be accessed within several hundred meters, identifying the item and the localization. At retail stores, each tagged product can provide a bunch of information, just as real time inventory, that customers and store employees can access at any moment through interactive information points and at self-checkout stations (Caro & Sadr, 2019).

Augmented reality (AR): A visual representation that combines real and virtual imaginary that is

interactive in real time (Azuma, 1997). In the present retail context, AR is involved in the combination of computer or virtual generated images and real and on the moment images and/or location information to enrich, and immerse customers within their retail experience (Pantano, et al., 2018).

Virtual Reality (VR): It is a real-time and multi-sensory experience that generate virtual graphics

in a multidimensional environment, displayed to end users (Earnshaw, 2014).

Artificial Intelligence (AI): Refers to computer systems with human like ability to interpret

external data, learn from it, and achieve specific and flexible goals and tasks (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2019).

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1.3. Problem setting

To comprehend the reasons to carry out the conducted research it is necessary to first understand the context in which the study took place, as well as the goals to reach with its development.

1.3.1. Retail Context

The present of the retail industry require high competitiveness as constantly new multifaceted businesses are entering and offering omnichannel environments that load consumers with information about all kind of goods and services. The easiness of information access is making customers to have higher expectations, and to evaluate the offerings in a more critical way. Moreover, the present industries are constantly facing the commodity trap, where rapidly products and services become indistinguishable from others and become price oriented (D'Aveni, 2010; Morgan, 2019). In order to stand out from the ‘sea of sameness’ and differentiate a brand, companies are in the need to offer a superior customer experience (Verhoef, et al., 2009; Grewal, et al., 2009).

In particular, physical retail stores are operating in a constantly transforming environment, where customers are using multiple retail channels at the same time while shopping, changing the way of approaching the retail stores and by this the decision and search processes (Bäckström & Johansson, 2017). Indeed, the physical stores are reflecting a change environment for customers, employees, and retailers perspectives.

Retail stores are increasingly facing the need to differentiate by deeply engage their customers into their offerings. Technology is indeed a crucial element for retailers to potentially achieve the desired engagement by targeting the right customer segments and connect with them to facilitate and enrich the purchase decision making process (Grewal, et al., 2017). In this context, where companies are introducing digital technologies into their offerings, it is evidenced the importance of understanding and managing customer experience and engagement levels (Accenture, 2015). It is expected that investments done by retails with interactive technologies

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will grow by 20% annually to $36 billion by 2020 (Adapa, et al., 2020), reflecting the importance of correctly plan and manage the new applications of technology in the interactions with customers.

Thus, in this context it is clear the need to comprehend the best way to lead and manage the customer interactions within the service encounters in the physical retail stores. Such encounters can be followed and triggered by store employees or directly by technology applications, in the form of self-checkout stations, interactive screens, service robots, among others. In this way, it is evidenced the importance to proceed with the research of how retailers are managing and applying technology and the role staff members are starting to have in the interactions with customers.

1.3.2. Objectives

Next stages of the study are aimed at first, discuss the theoretical background of the researches done on the customer experience and interactions in the retail stores, giving a stronger understanding of the benefits, obstacles and difficulties of customer interactions with retail employees and with technology applications in the present retail context. This, by integrating the literature reviewed in an overall discussion starting with the explanation and discussion of the customer experience in retail, followed by a more focused context of the in-store service encounter between customers with employees and with technology elements, analyzing their possible roles and implications in the intended interactions.

Secondly, to follow an evaluation of secondary research focused on chosen significant and pioneer retailers as case studies. From a deep research on secondary resource sit was studied and analyzed the offerings and customer experiences intended at the selected case studies. In this way, it is understood the way customers interact within the service encounter and with which actors, being them front line employees or technology elements, discussing the benefits that this interactions convey to the different involved players, customers, employees, and the retail company.

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Finally, the case studies are intended to be evaluated following a suggested framework designed after the literature review and the case study analysis, where the customer experiences are differentiated between the main actor with whom the customer interacts, as a human or technology-oriented interaction. In the same way, interactions are differentiated in its main goal, which can be either focused on optimizing the encounter, or on enhancing the experience. In this manner, the final goal of the research is to find how managers are balancing the mix of human-technology actors in the customer service encounter in the retail physical stores and discuss the trends and future suggestions to better approach this existing challenge.

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2. Literature Review

The review of literature is aimed to congregate the scientific research that have been done in relation to the customer experience in retailing, the service encounter at the physical store, focusing then in the roles of human and technology elements within the interactions carried out by customers in it. Consequently, by describing the scientific context of the service encounter in retailing, and the roles for employees and technology applications that have been studied before, it was reached a focused research question to conduct the study to be developed.

2.1. Customer experience in retailing

The study of how customers experience a purchase has been under debate from many years and it is constantly developing and adapting according to the ecosystems and technology development. Holbrook and Hirschman (1982, pg.134) highlighted how to communicate the nonverbal cues of products that conveys a consumption experience, is a value that customers are willing to have and will motivate them to purchase. Not only to see or touch the product is enough to show the customer the real experience they will have when using it or consuming it, and the way retailers could expressed this experience before buying represents a strong purchasing driver and a competitive advantage. Later, it is introduced the concept of ‘experience economy’ (Pine II & Gilmore, 1998). A progression of economic value beyond the extraction of commodities, make goods and deliver services by staging differential experiences. The authors explain how successful companies engage individual customers by creating memorable events on a personal level, this by using goods as props and services as the stage.

Alongside, customers intended role can generate different types of experiences. The ‘experience economy’ is presented alongside the ‘Four Realms of and Experience’, where the experiences are placed across two dimensions. The first one refers to the level of participation of customers, whether it is a passive or active participation. Then, the second dimension corresponds to the connection between the customers with the event or performance in terms of absorption or

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immersion (Pine II & Gilmore, 1998). The combination of the dimensions results in four quadrants (‘The four Realms’) represented in figure 1.

The studies of such experiences in the retail environment introduced the concept of ‘shopping experience’, which is determined by the interaction between the salespersons and the customer, as well with the store multi-sensory atmosphere (Kerin, et al., 1992; Falk & Campbell, 1997; Arnold, et al., 2005; Verhoef, et al., 2009). In this context, these interactions convey the overall experience in terms of delight, excitement, and enjoyment perceived by customers, and can depend on elements controlled by the retailer, as well as elements out of control (Verhoef, et al., 2009).

Within this model of customer experience inside the store, the controlled elements include the service interface, retail atmosphere, assortment, price and brand; while the uncontrolled

Absorption

Entretainment

Educational

Esthetic

Escapist

Absorption Active participation Passive participation

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elements are linked to the buyer and the specific situation (reason for buying, mood, influence by others, situational elements). Adapting and designing the experience linked to its multi-sensory atmosphere is then produced by combining the components that affect customers’ internal cognitive, affective, physical, and social responses.

Aside, a study made by Kristina Bäckström and Ulf Johansson (2006, pg.422) comparing retailer and consumer perspectives, revealed that traditional values that facilitates the visit such as interaction with employees, product selection and layout, constitute in its most the positive consumers’ experiences. Contrary to consumers, retailers focused to extract value from additional features in the visit experience. Digital innovation and store environments engaged retailers to facilitate cross-shopping and in-store entertainment, elements presented in retailers’ new store concepts (Bäckström & Johansson, 2006).

Different customers’ responses constitute the overall customer experience, for instance sensory, social, and emotional responses, as well as cognitive and rational (Bolton, et al., 2014). To cover all the responses and stimulus range the service need to be placed as an ecosystem where the customer follows activities, responsibilities, and experiences, but are specific changes through it that will make the difference and add value. Grewal et al. (2009, p. 1) observe in a retail context how ‘little things’ can result in a big difference in the customer experience, affecting retailers’ profitability and growth. To understand to what the author refers to ‘little thigs’ he list the following examples “easy interactions between the customer and the firm, consistency of the message across all communication channels, providing multiple channels to interact and shop, and finally, being responsive to customer needs”. Whether they can be considered little or not, these things are basic into succeeding in the interaction or encounter between the company and the customer, and the little things or changes that are done inside this concepts to make them seamless and smooth are the differential drivers.

To engage customers and enhance their experience, firms need a deep understanding of them, their latent needs and what moves them. Companies are exploring what technology, employees and social media can give to better understand their customers (Bolton, et al., 2014). The same authors explain how the customer experience can become ‘stale, merely mechanical and without

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soul’ if service providers are not constantly improving and keeping fresh the small meaningful details that move customers. But what does it mean keep it fresh and which are these small meaningful details that influence customer’s decision making? Previous research described how elements that are designed to bring a good mood and a feeling of happiness and optimism results in positive effective responses from customers. Moreover, such responses towards the product, service or event can easily become ‘automatic and generalizable’, helping customers to niche their options and have a faster evaluation and decision making of what to purchase (Bagozzi, et al., 1999; Gardner, 1985). Offering positive stimulus that bring customers to a good mood is presented as the preferred experience that retailers may provide, increasing the intention to buy and repeat a visit encouraged by the store environments and the pleasant and satisfying stimulus. Moreover, the development of different online and digital channels had changed the business models of retailing as it become a driver of change and of market exposure. Verhoef, et al. (2015, pg.175) explains the omni-channel retailing as the full integration between channels, online and offline, digital, mobile, and physical. They describe that in the customer experience in these new retail strategy “the distinctions between physical and online will vanish, turning the world into a showroom without walls”. This calls retailers to involve all channels in their strategies and management and enhance the customer whole experience. Even if customers have an orientation or preference to online or physical, the idea is to create a seamless integration where is not possible to fill the distinction. Following this, the physical store has become in an environment in constant transformation. How different channels get in touch with customer at a same time is creating new frames of customer experience and touch points management. The scenario where the use of smartphone while shopping is increasing as the accessibility and performance of these devises are in constant progress.

Bäckström and Johansson presented in a new study in 2017 a comparison between the perspectives of customers and retailers referring the customer experiences in the store 10 years from their similar previous study. They corroborate how retailers are making large efforts to meet the new customers’ requirements, who they describe them as ‘competent’, ‘knowledgeable’, and ‘demanding’. In consequence, retailers are investing in the integration between stores and other channels and offering positive experiences by involving multiple in-store aspects, from personnel,

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interior design, price, and new technological solutions. In contrast, the use of in-store technology is enabling quicker sore visits, processes automatization and resources use optimization, facilitating retailers to better manage the retail internal logistics and costs management.

In the study made by Bustamante & Rubio (2017), it is stated how retailers are increasingly adopting the use of technology to improve the customer experience. Technology such as in-store tablets, augmented reality, virtual reality, and geolocation are being used as positive stimuli that improves customer satisfaction and loyalty to the store. Retailers needs to focus in the experience they are providing beyond the product, building a relationship with customers where the physical elements, along with the different channels, are the means by which they provide the experience that provide products and social interaction (Bustamante & Rubio, 2017). This is aligned with the results obtained from the customer perspectives, where they affirmed that the experience was affected by how quickly and easy the store visits were. How convenient and effective the visit to the store were included in most of the positive experiences described, traditional factors that describe the achievement of what customers where intended to do when visiting the store. Thus, it is when technology enhance these traditional store aspects that customers start recognizing a positive value in their store visit. The combination between traditional store aspects, as personnel behavior and product accessibility, with technology that enhance them, is being recognized by retailers and customers as a driver that result in a positive store visit experience.

2.2. In-store service encounter

To analyze, design, and manage the customer experience in the store encounter it is needed to include different factors into consideration. Starting from the encounter perspective, employees, customers, and the managers, may perceive the customer experience differently (Kranzbuhler, et al., 2017). Secondly, it is possible to refer to the customer experience in a static or dynamic manner. A static one, is connected to one specific point in time, while dynamic involve a series of direct or indirect touchpoints within the entire course of the customer journey (Kranzbuhler,

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et al., 2017). In this matter, it is possible to say that a dynamic customer experience is a compilation of several static involved in the encounter. Connected to this, recent research introduced the ‘Moment of Meaning’ concept, which refers to a specific element (moment) during the customer journey, in this case a static experience, that translates the meaning that is offered through all the customer journey (Artusi & Bellini, 2020). Federico Artusi and Emilio Bellini (2020, p. 4) presented this concept as a small detail that is in charge of communicating metaphorically the intended meaning internally to the strategy level, and externally to the customer level.

The store visit as a service encounter integrates the interactions with people (i.e., employees, other customers), physical elements (i.e., products, environment), service processes (i.e., product seeking, check-out), and technologies (Patrício, et al., 2011), and it is crucial to align and stablish the roles for each encounter component. To understand the roles of the frontline employees, the customers, and the technology, Larivière, et al. (2017), conducted a research and distinguished different key elements involved in these roles. For each of these elements it was framed different roles that according to the performance within them the most effective and efficient the service encounter will be. Following this, the accountability of the specific role performance depends in the integration and readiness by the human part, which are driven by the clarity of the role, but also of the ability and motivation of the person involved (Larivière, et al., 2017).

In the case of customer roles, it is evidenced the extent in which they can be involved in the development and coordination of the service encounter and co-create the outcomes of it (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016). Larivière, et al. (2017) present customers roles as a mirror of the employees roles and describe the self-responsibility that customers can have in how positive an experience in the store can be. These encounters can have different levels of customer engagement; depending on how much customers are involved in the encounter (Langeard & Eiglier, 1987), they can be considered as a consumer, user, participant, or co-creator. Bolton, et al. (2014, pg.256) explains that “co-creation occurs when consumers interact with organizations (through diverse channels) or products and thereby have an active role in the shaping of their personal experience.” By this, the personalization of the experience by a good or service to overcome

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different situations is giving a value to the entire service outcome, not only to the customer but to the firm.

2.2.1. The role of front-line employees in the service encounter

In the study of Kristina Backstrom and Ulf Johansson (2017) showed how retailers, although mostly are investing in the technology dimensions of the stores, they are prioritizing the management of the interactions between employees and customers, in the way they are all focused in the same goals that will generate positive costumer experiences in the store. Likewise, previous studies point how customers value not only the functional intrinsic benefits from the interactions with employees but also the social benefit brought from the casual conversations and the feeling of social involvement with the store, an extraordinary opportunity that need to be promoted by the retailer (Hu & Jasper, 2006; Pan & Zinkhan, 2006; Vargo & Lusch, 2008). Thus, consumers are not only visiting the store to shop, but also to have the social benefit with the service encounter community by sharing opinions, advices, suggestions, and collaborative activities; And it is the retail job to provide the in-store welcoming spaces that facilitate the social interactions that will turn into a positive experience for customers (Bustamante & Rubio, 2017). Alongside, frontline employees can be involved in four key roles that are not mutually exclusive and can be applied at the same time (Larivière, et al., 2017). First, as an ‘enabler’, the employee guide and advise how to perform correctly the respective roles of customers and technology, as well the facilitation of technology usage by customers (Bowen, 2016). Second, as an ‘innovator’, they can actively detect improvement areas of the service, followed by the direct and indirect contact with customers, that will convey in new solutions (Ye, et al., 2012; Bowen, 2016). This requires a high involvement of employees in the innovation process of the retail company that will bring larger amount of radical innovation (Ordanini & Parasuraman, 2011). Third, as a ‘coordinator’, employees manage and balance the interdependencies between multiple actors and partners through a series of encounters across multiple channels for a seamless and consistent experience (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016; Homburg, et al., 2017; Ostrom, et al., 2015).

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Fourth, as a ‘differentiator’, employees’ human touch is a differential factor that display unique behaviors related to the brand (Bolton, et al., 2014; Geibelhausen, et al., 2014; De Keyser, et al., 2015).

In consequence, employees play a vital role in the retail environment, influencing the innovation outcomes, and orienting and coordinating the customer collaboration and involvement, as well as technology performance and progress (Di Stefano, et al., 2012; Ordanini & Parasuraman, 2011; Pantano, 2014). For instance, when employees are in charge of mediating the interaction between the firm and the customers by transmit the firms’ knowledge about their offerings and at the same time influence their choice through recommendations and different adaptive selling tactics, they acquire valuable information about the customer satisfaction and needs that can be followed by the development, monitoring and improvement of new retail strategies (Váquez Casielles, et al., 2005; Andreu, 2010). This knowledge and valuable information can lead to develop and introduce technology innovations, acting as innovation drivers, that seek to solve customers’ needs and requests (Pantano, et al., 2018).

The ability, self-confidence, and motivation of the employee to perform adequately and shift from one to more of the mentioned roles is largely connected to a positive resulting encounter experience (Larivière, et al., 2017). Consequently, it is crucial that employees are trained and prepared to cope the different roles that are necessary for the desired outcome (Bowen, 2016). Alongside, following certain abilities and social skills, just as creativity and empathy, can boost the innovator and differentiator roles over technology alone capacity (Frey & Osborne, 2017). However, recognizing the increasing importance of technology in the service encounter, employees’ digital fluency has become a fundamental ability to coordinate and enable positive outcomes and experiences (Colbert, 2016).

2.2.2. The role of technology in the service encounter

In first instance, the implementation of technological innovations at the physical store are intended to solve different traditional, also emerging, challenges in the retailing environment.

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Such challenges involve crowded spaces, limited opening hours, sales assistants availability and presence, limited exhibition space, and slow payment processes (Pantano, et al., 2018). Facing these factors in a effective way through the proper tools, can increase considerably the efficiency and productivity of retail store processes, and face the challenges that customers face through their encounter. From a customer point of view, the implementation of such innovations, open them a wide room of benefits. For instance, customers get access to a broader offer of products and services that may not be available in the moment at the store, also, faster and shorter queues and waiting time, more delivery and take away options, instant information access, and a more overall satisfying shopping experience (Pantano, et al., 2018).

Technology roles are directed to enhance not only the customer experience, but employees’ as well. While customers use in-store technologies to reduce invested time, effort and cost in the service encounter or to enrich their overall experience with extra features, employees are also being benefited by redirecting their dedicated time, energy, and resources to less repetitive and more valued activities (Marinova, et al., 2017). As A Result, employees can focus in their more developed roles that bring innovative solutions for customers, and relationships building. Likewise, the three distinguished key roles for technology in the coming service encounters (Augmentation, Substitution, and Network facilitation (Marinova, et al., 2017; Lamberton & Stephen, 2016)) are linked directly with the effect on frontline employees. Whether it is intended to assist or complement the employees’ activities and connections building or performing them alongside directly with customers. Thus, augmentation and substitution roles are mutually exclusive, but network facilitation can involve employee augmented performance or substitution.

On the other hand, the type of technology and the way it is implemented can be the successful factors for a competitive advantage and an outstanding customer experience. When tools are systematically brought together to enable frontline employees and customers to learn and cocreate value through in-store interactions is intended as a smart technology system (Marinova, et al., 2017). The same authors recognize a shift in the use of technology from the ones intended to replace frontline employees in repetitive encounters towards technologies that facilitate the

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delivery of the service for the employee, meanwhile it gives a more enjoyable, customized and more involving interaction for the customer.

One of the main uses of technology is the collection of information that then, with a proper data analysis, can better understand customers behaviors and reflect effective insights to predict their behaviors and target future strategies, simultaneously benefiting retailers and consumers. Rich information can be obtained just from a purchase, for example, the transactional data (e.g., payment method, price, quantity, listed products), consumer data (e.g., gender, age, phone number, email) and environmental data (e.g., location, time of the day, season), and with the proper technology retailers can effectively collect it and at the same time enrich the customer experience (Grewal, et al., 2017).

The use of Artificial Intelligence responses on customer interactions (through In-store gadgets or smartphone apps), are intended to collect and communicate the information about products (locations, functionalities, features, etc.) , by this it is possible to answer customer questions about the products and add suggestions about other products combination. By data collection and predictive analytics, plus AI, the answers can be customized and more relevant to each customer (Grewal, et al., 2017).

In consequence, customers are being transformed into more informed, conscious, and engaged actors, giving firms, especially front-line employees, an amplified responsibility to provide an enhanced information and value offering superior to what an AI application can provide. The retail management has to include strategies of how to restructure the jobs of their front-line employees so they can offer the differential value which can translate into higher customer engagement and service satisfaction (Grewal, et al., 2017).

Likewise, visual cues, either online or in-store, are essential components needed to deeply engage customers. In this way, digital displays, just as in-store touchscreens tablets or through smartphone’s apps, along with dynamic messages, display videos, pictures and information that bring customers to a deeper emotional connection with the store and enhance their experience (Roggeveen & Grewal, 2016; Roggeveen, et al., 2015).

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In the same way, Social networks and social media are additional possibilities to escalate the customer engagement through their service experience that are being increasingly used by retailers to promote and communicate their offerings. There are different characteristics that attract people to immerse in social media and interact with people and stores. Starting with the timeliness effects of constant updated information, and the possibility to be constantly connected with social dynamic communities, which satisfy the human innate need to socialize and interact with others (Roggeveen & Grewal, 2016).

Connected to the need of social benefit in the service encounter, technologies are starting to systematically involve certain features that engage customers on a social level between people to people but also between people to machine (Heerink, et al., 2010). Further research within the service encounter and the technology trend of covering the social benefit it is expected that “customer service experiences of the future will be particularly shaped by the extent to which technology engages customers on a social level (Van Doorn, et al., 2017, p. 44).

This conveys in the need of balancing between front line employees and technology resources in the service encounter in the retail sector. The study presented by Larivière, et al. (2017), mentioned in the final research agenda, in relation to the service encounter design, how managers must take a decision on the balance between human and technological inputs, moving through a range from technology-driven service encounters, to human-only service encounters. De Keyser, et al. (2015) bring a first clue mentioning how the level of technological input is expected to be in relation to the customer segments involved, the product/service market, and the stage of the customer journey.

2.3. Research question

The research question is a tool to shape and lead the coming research and analysis to be done throughout this project. Moreover, it is intended to fulfill the gap found in the existing literature that was reviewed. Through the literature review it was reflected how the customer experience in retail has been constantly developing, given the fact of the increase of more knowledgeable

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customers, and technology innovation that expand the offerings possibilities. Thus, bringing retail to a scenario where it is crucial to understand the best way to balance the extent in which their customers are interacting with the innovative technology and their expert associates and take advantage of the most valuable benefits from these interactions. This leads us to the following research question:

RQ: How to best balance the mix of human-technology actors in the customer service encounter in the retail physical stores?

Accordingly, this thesis aims at answering the aforementioned research question by relating and analyzing the literature reviewed with real case studies. Evaluating the way in which retailers are balancing in physical stores the customer interactions with the technological elements and with front line employees. By this, coming with a suggested framework that represents the approaches of customer experiences in retail stores and visualize the position in which the real examples analyzed are balancing the customer service encounters. In this way, it will be possible to find trends and prominent strategies that can lead to managerial suggestions for coming scenarios where the balance of the mix technology-human will be crucial for a successful customer experience output.

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3. Research Methodology

Following the literature review, which provides a more focused context and leads to the main research question of this study, it was necessary to proceed with a connection with real examples that can support the statements found from scientific articles and bring a broader understanding of the way retailers are balancing the interactions of their customers with employees and technology elements. Consequently, for the selection and deep understanding of the retailers that were used for this purpose, it was necessary to carry out a research of secondary resources that could provide the necessary information to comprehend the way they approach the customer interactions within the service encounters at their physical stores.

In the first place, the research was built upon a selection of eleven different retail examples from 7 different industries that worked as cases to study in correlation to the research question of this thesis. The selection of the case studies followed a research focused on retail companies that are characterized by having recently applied innovative customer experiences within their physical stores, either oriented to technology or to human interactions. By researching through secondary resources, just as news, articles, and blogs, cases with more innovative customer experiences and more available information were chosen, having as a constrain to do not select more than two cases from the same industry sector.

Consequently, it was chosen retailers from eleven different categories including groceries, sports articles, children toys, restaurants, footwear and clothing, home furnishing and improvement, , and electronics. Next it is listed the selected case studies by retail sector:

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Retail Sector Case studies Groceries • Amazon Go

• LaESSE

Sports articles and apparel •_{Nike House of Innovation & Nike Live} •_Decathlon

Children Toys • Lego

Restaurants •_{Robot Restaurant} •_Creator

Footwear and clothing • Neiman Marcus

Home furnishing and improvement • Lowe’s

• IKEA Planning Studio

Electronics • Apple Store

Table 1. List of case studies by category

Through real case studies, of recognized brands and innovative outcomes, it is possible to analyze how the customer experience at the service encounter in-store is being affected by the technology implementation and the front-line employees roles. For this reason, all chosen cases have in common the use of technology elements in the service encounter but under different roles and levels. This is how it is possible to understand the role of employees according to the level of technology implementation and the role that they are intended to perform during the customer interactions balance.

Thus, from the selection of the case studies, a qualitatively rigorous inductive study and analysis was continued for each one of them with the purpose of understanding the main interactions within the customer journey of the physical stores of the chosen examples and be able to evaluate their approach and orientation towards the distinction between the involved actors (technology-employees) and between the main purpose of those interactions (time optimization-enhanced experience).

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The research was conducted from secondary sources, among which are highlighted the reports, news, and blogs found on the main websites of the retail companies, as well as blogs, reports, reviews, and news from reliable sources. In this way, it was obtained not only information from the company point of view, but also by the visitors who reviewed and commented about their personal experiences when visiting the mentioned stores, giving a broader view of the implications of technological applications and employees interactions. Through online research as the method used, it was reviewed qualitative, grounded secondary information, sources about the selected case studies and the customer interactions within the store for this thesis. This research methodology can offer numerous advantages, as it can gather large amount of data in a short time period and collection costs are diminished. Moreover, the sources used were often certified by third parties thanks to comments and reviews, in view of that, the data coming from the accessed secondary resources is reliable for the evaluation and thesis development.

Following the qualitative rigorous inductive research, it was congregated in a general explanation of the economic activities of the retail companies, along with the innovative offerings for customers when visiting the physical stores. Then, through a conceptual customer journey it is presented the interactions and activities that are led by technology applications or by front line employees. Finally, a more specific separate description of the technology and human interactions, followed by a space for additional exploration that includes third party comments, personal experiences and reviews.

Through a qualitative evaluation, it was evaluated and quantified the orientation of customer interactions within each case study, as well as the main purpose of the interactions, whether to optimize the encounter or to enhance the experience, distilling 2nd-order themes into overarching theoretical dimensions, a methodology that seeks qualitative rigor in inductive research. By formulating dynamic relationships, static data is transformed into dynamic grounded theory model that by additional literature consultation can refine the formulation of the emergent concepts and relationships (Gioia, et al., 2013).

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4. Findings

On this chapter it is possible to find for each case study selected, a general description, the customer journey, a description of the customer interactions with technology at the retail store, a description of the customer interactions with employees, and additional explorations that can help to evaluate the way interactions are balanced and how successful they are. Next, the customer experiences for each case study will be evaluated following the framework suggested in this research and better explained in the Discussion chapter.

4.1. Case Studies

Amazon Go & Amazon Go Grocery

Amazon Go is an innovative store concept that offers a ‘Just Walk Out Shopping’ experience, where customers would not have to make lines, neither checkout, to buy ready-to-eat breakfasts, lunch, and snack options made by internal chefs, local kitchens and bakeries, and national brands. To shop at these stores, the customer needs to have an Amazon account, a recent-generation smartphone, and the Amazon Go app (Amazon, 2020).

To date (July 2020), Amazon Go have opened 26 stores in 4 cities in United States of America: Chicago (7), New York (8), San Francisco (5), and Seattle (6) (Amazon, 2020).

Similarly, Amazon Go Grocery offers the same ‘Just Walk Out Shopping’ experience, also with the same app, but with a wider option of products. Within the offerings that customer can find in the store, it is included: Fresh fruits and vegetables that change with the season, a selection of quality beef, pork, poultry and seafood, local artisan breads, cheese, and baked goods that come from some of the best local kitchens and bakeries daily from around the city and region. Also, it is possible to find ready-to-heat and ready-to-cook meals and a selection of beer, wine, spirits, and more. It is taste-tested a wide range of products to find the tastiest, highest-quality, best-value products around to be offered in-store (Amazon, 2020).

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Amazon Go Grocery opened the first, and only one in the moment, grocery store to offer ‘Just Walk Out Shopping’ experience in Seattle, United States of America (Amazon, 2020).

Customer Journey:

Diagram 2. Amazon Go Customer Journey. Source: Author’s

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Customer interactions with technology:

The checkout-free shopping experience works with the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning. This technology automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to the shelves and keeps track of them in a virtual cart. Then, when customers finished shopping, they can just leave the store, and later will receive a receipt and charge their Amazon account (Amazon, 2020).

Customers can also interact with the Amazon Go App, where they can create or link an Amazon account, add a payment method, generate a QR code to enter the store, track time in-store, have a list of available products, find store locations, and receive the receipt after exiting store.

Figure 2. Amazon Go wireframes. Source: Apple app store