Smart technologies for retailing: who, what, where and why

Abstract

Purpose

The retail landscape is dramatically changing due to a series of socio-economic and technological challenges, which can be faced through the adoption of smart technologies. Accordingly, a significant number of publications in this field have been produced, albeit with fragmented results. Therefore, this paper aims at both providing a clear and organised overview of the main smart technologies for physical retailing, in terms of application fields and expected impact, while identifying the major shortcomings and future research avenues.

Design/methodology/approach

The research conducts a systematic review of the literature concerning the assimilation of smart technologies within physical retail environments, resulting in the analysis of 103 papers published from 2005 to 2023. The review highlights (1) the main smart technologies employed in retail stores, (2) their application area and (3) the beneficiaries of their adoption. Accordingly, these three aspects are initially assessed independently and then examined in combination.

Findings

The analysis presents a comprehensive list of 16 key technologies (what) that can support a wide range of processes, spanning from back-end functions to front-end activities, also enabling the connection with online channels (where), catering several and different benefits (why) to both customers and retailers (who). Besides, the research points out many uncovered topics that could be addressed by the academic community.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the review is the first one in the literature offering a thorough and organised overview of the different available technologies for in-store application and their impact on physical retail processes.