Title: Retail technology acceptance model for online at offline

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine consumers’ intention to accept/resist the retail technologies and to identify factors that affect their intention. The objectives of the study are to 1) identify the factors that influence customers’ technology acceptance 2) thoroughly review the technologies available in the market that could be implemented at offline stores and create values for the consumers, 3) measure customers’ acceptance/resistance on the technologies selected through literature review, and 4) provide a guideline to select suitable technologies and identify factors that need to be improved to increase consumers’ acceptance for each technology selected for this study. A quantitative research with a survey method was employed. From the literature reviewed, the technologies selected to examine consumers’ acceptance/resistance are Wi-Fi availability, face recognition sensor, augmented reality, virtual reality/Google glass, mobile application for styling help, interactive touch screen, 3D hologram/printer, and QR code/smart shelves. For each technology, the proposed relationships were tested. The results of mean difference tests show that participants are willing to use Wi-Fi, and an app for styling help at offline stores due to high usefulness, ease of use, compatibility and risk reduction. Meanwhile, they are reluctant to use the face recognition sensor because they perceive low usefulness, low risk reduction, and lack of compatibility; however, the ANOVA result shows that if this technology is improved in compatibility and convenience, participants would have a positive attitude and high intention to use. Also, depending on the consumers’ shopping orientation and the types of technology profile, they evaluated a technology differently. For an unfamiliar technology, consumers need to evaluate before confirming their intention to use (i.e. the mediating effect of evaluation between consumer’s profile and intention to use). Not all technologies require high usefulness for high intention to use, contrary to previous research.