Consumer preferences for unmanned stores: A choice experiment study

Abstract

Unmanned stores are characterized by the addition of new technical attributes to existing retail services to replace human staff. This study examines consumer preferences for store- and technology-related attributes across both goods and services retail settings. Using a sample of 600 participants, we conducted a choice experiment and analyzed multinomial logit models to estimate consumer preferences for each attribute and the levels of preferences. The results indicate that not only technology-related attributes but also store-related attributes influence consumer preferences for unmanned stores. Furthermore, we found that consumer preference declines as stores adopt more advanced technologies. The effects of these attributes are largely consistent across both settings, except in the case of payment-related technologies. The findings provide practical insights on optimally managing store attributes and adopting retail technologies, taking into account consumer perceptions associated with technological integration in unmanned stores.