The Innovation of the Cashierless Store: A Preliminary Analysis in Italy

Patrizia Gazzola, Daniele Grechi, Ilaria Martinelli and Roberta Pezzetti
Additional contact information
Patrizia Gazzola: Department of Economics (DiECO), University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy
Daniele Grechi: Department of Economics (DiECO), University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy
Ilaria Martinelli: Department of Economics (DiECO), University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy
Roberta Pezzetti: Department of Economics (DiECO), University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: The retail sector, under the pressure of digitalization and technological innovation, has experienced profound changes in the last decade, and retailers have had to cope with these changes by implementing new business models and competitive strategies with the aim of satisfying the consumers’ needs. In the last few decades, the sector has been affected by different new trends, from the birth of supermarkets to the advent of e-commerce, up to the introduction of cashierless stores. The latter represents a new category of store that is totally computer-based and digitalized, in which the use of cameras, sensors and self-shelves minimizes human interaction. Amazon pioneered this emerging concept, with the launch of Amazon Go, but other start-up companies are rapidly entering the cashierless retail market and embracing the challenge. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the knowledge of Italian consumers of cashierless shops, and the relevance of different factors related to this new kind of shops. A questionnaire was sent to a sample of more than 1000 consumers to identify and evaluate the actual situation and knowledge of this phenomenon, which is not yet diffuse in Italy. A statistical analysis, regarding both their knowledge about cashierless stores and the customer experience, is provided to discuss the most relevant factors affecting the customers’ perceptions and attitudes, with a comparison per gender and type of users. The results of the provided analysis reveal that the phenomenon is very little known, and this is certainly influenced by the lack of these stores in Italy.

Keywords: cashierless; consumer behaviour; technology; smart payment; survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2034/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2034/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:2034-:d:746620

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().