Self-service technology in supermarkets – Do frontline staff still matter?

This paper uses the concept of psychological distance under construal level theory to explore the differences in the customers’ evaluations of overall store quality, satisfaction and loyalty, based on their experiences with the traditional staff-checkout method and the relatively new selfcheckout...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sharma, Piyush, Ueno, Akiko, Kingshott, Russel
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier 2020
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/81491
_version_ 1848764376788500480
author Sharma, Piyush
Ueno, Akiko
Kingshott, Russel
author_facet Sharma, Piyush
Ueno, Akiko
Kingshott, Russel
author_sort Sharma, Piyush
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper uses the concept of psychological distance under construal level theory to explore the differences in the customers’ evaluations of overall store quality, satisfaction and loyalty, based on their experiences with the traditional staff-checkout method and the relatively new selfcheckout machines. Two empirical studies, a field survey with retail shoppers in UK (N1=313) and an online survey with members of a consumer panel in Australia (N2=474), show that the perceived quality of staff-checkout has a stronger positive impact on the overall store quality, satisfaction and loyalty, than the quality of self-checkout. Similarly, satisfaction with staffcheckout has a stronger positive effect on store satisfaction and loyalty, than the satisfaction with self-checkout. Finally, loyalty to staff-checkout also has a stronger positive influence on store loyalty, than the loyalty towards self-checkout. These results show that despite growing use of self-service technology, frontline staff continue to be important for overall store evaluations.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T11:18:23Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-81491
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T11:18:23Z
publishDate 2020
publisher Elsevier
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-814912020-11-02T06:38:59Z Self-service technology in supermarkets – Do frontline staff still matter? Sharma, Piyush Ueno, Akiko Kingshott, Russel This paper uses the concept of psychological distance under construal level theory to explore the differences in the customers’ evaluations of overall store quality, satisfaction and loyalty, based on their experiences with the traditional staff-checkout method and the relatively new selfcheckout machines. Two empirical studies, a field survey with retail shoppers in UK (N1=313) and an online survey with members of a consumer panel in Australia (N2=474), show that the perceived quality of staff-checkout has a stronger positive impact on the overall store quality, satisfaction and loyalty, than the quality of self-checkout. Similarly, satisfaction with staffcheckout has a stronger positive effect on store satisfaction and loyalty, than the satisfaction with self-checkout. Finally, loyalty to staff-checkout also has a stronger positive influence on store loyalty, than the loyalty towards self-checkout. These results show that despite growing use of self-service technology, frontline staff continue to be important for overall store evaluations. 2020 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/81491 10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102356 Elsevier restricted
spellingShingle Sharma, Piyush
Ueno, Akiko
Kingshott, Russel
Self-service technology in supermarkets – Do frontline staff still matter?
title Self-service technology in supermarkets – Do frontline staff still matter?
title_full Self-service technology in supermarkets – Do frontline staff still matter?
title_fullStr Self-service technology in supermarkets – Do frontline staff still matter?
title_full_unstemmed Self-service technology in supermarkets – Do frontline staff still matter?
title_short Self-service technology in supermarkets – Do frontline staff still matter?
title_sort self-service technology in supermarkets – do frontline staff still matter?
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/81491