Mobile payment technologies in retail: a review of potential benefits and risks

Purpose – Retailers and suppliers are facing the challenge of reconfiguring systems to accommodate increasingly mobile customers expecting multichannel options supporting quick and secure digital payment. The purpose of this paper is to harness the learning from the implementation of self-checkout and combines it with available information relating to mobile scanning and mobile point-of-sale (MPOS). Design/methodology/approach – In review of the literature, the paper provides an overview of different modes of mobile payment systems, and a consideration of some of the benefits that they offer to retailers and their customers. The main focus, drawing upon telephone interviews with retail security professionals in Australia and New Zealand, is on anticipating and mitigating against the potential risks, vulnerabilities and impact on shrinkage. Findings – With the market being flooded with software and products, retailers are exposed to a compelling case for mobile payment, but it was found that they are not as cognisant of the potential risks. Research limitations/implications – Further research is needed on the different permutations of mobile POS and how it impacts on the customer journey and rates of internal and external theft. Practical implications – Suggestions for future empirical research on the risks and vulnerabilities that moving to mobile payment can usher in are provided. Originality/value – The paper links research from diverse fields, in particular criminology, to elucidate the potential impact of mobile technologies on retail theft and internal technological and process issues, before offering possible solutions

The Forgotten Signature: An Observational Study on Policy of Securing Identity in Prevention of Identity Theft and Credit/Debit Card Fraud at Retail Store POS Terminals

Identity theft and credit and bank card fraud is increasing in America and worldwide. Given the current statistics of its prevalence and practices around the world, many in government are starting to take critical notice due to its impact on a nation’s economy. Limited amounts of research have been conducted regarding the practices of applying the Routine Activities Theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979) to better equip store managers in understanding the critical need for capable and effective point of sale guardianship for in-store prevention of credit or bank card fraud due to identity theft. This research has used qualitative observational studies to investigate the presence of or lack of capable guardianship at point of sales transactions in large department stores where a majority of in-store credit and bank card fraud loss occurs. Findings conclude an overwhelming lack of capable guardianship at retail store POS terminals

Rehumanising the Self-Checkout Experience

The adoption of self-checkout has been rapid, and is set to grow in grocery stores, where for many, the self-checkout machines will represent over 50% of all transactions, and beyond, in retail channels such as drug, fashion and home improvement. However, the implementation of self-checkout has its challenges, which can lead to losses and frustrated shoppers. In our second collaboration with Central Saint Martins, University of Arts London, we tasked their design students to find new design ideas that address these frustrations and reduce losses. As with all ECR reports, we never prescribe “solutions” but more, we promote new ways of thinking, principles, and frameworks that retailers can take from the report and use to generate discussion and new thinking in their business, where the five design ideas in this report can be the inspiration

Self-Checkout Loss: Three Ways to Rethink SCO Design

In this unique applied research study, academics and designers partnered with four of ECR’s Retailer members to immerse themselves in the self-checkout experience, understanding from the perspectives of the shopper and self-checkout supervisors, their journey from entry to exit, and their design challenges and frustrations. Whilst some Retailers have taken strong design approaches, the design-research nevertheless found SCO machines ‘plonked’ wherever they can reasonably fit, and shoppers not always sure how to use the machines or smoothly navigate the SCO environment. In response to this problem context, the design researchers adopted a human-centred design-led approach and formulated key insights to reframe the challenges at self-checkout. Then generated a range of concepts, most of which amount to sketches of possible incremental design changes that might help reduce retail losses and improve customer and staff experiences. Research findings overall suggest that there are no silver bullet design solutions for the complex challenges faced at SCO and instead an ecosystem of low-tech and high-tech design solutions will have a role to play in reducing customer frustrations and improving flow at self-checkout. While improved machine solutions (including future capacity for AI computer vision technology) can address some existing challenges, the key takeaway from this report is to show how refreshed “design thinking” approaches and small design interventions can make a big difference. The report highlights simple design methods that can be adopted and low-tech concepts that can be adapted and tested by Retail partners to improve upon a range of local problems, suggesting improvements that take a human-centred focus. It urges Retailers to engage with design thinking and offers a detailed explanation of concepts from crime prevention to better understand design context at SCO to help improve customer experience and reduce retail losses. Two reports have been generated for this project: this ‘full’ report contains research insights, twenty design concepts, and includes a comprehensive account of DAC’s design-led approach, methodology and crime science thinking. The second ‘short’ report covers the research insights and the design concepts. We encourage you to review these in your business, with as many functions as possible, including those on the shop floor and in the critical role of the self-checkout supervisor

What is preventing e-commerce from reaching its full potential? An investigation into trust as a barrier for the adoption of B2C e-commerce in the United Kingdom

Although electronic commerce has seen considerable growth in recent years, usage figures suggest that U.K consumers are still hesitant to make the switch to onJine shopping. This study initially reviewed the literatures on trust, Internet security, consumer purchasing behaviour and electronic commerce, and then combined the literature review findings with initial results obtained from a pilot study, and a model identifying the factors that affect consumers' perceived trustworthiness of web sites when making purchasing decisions on the Internet was created. The model was then tested by means of a consumer perception survey that used a novel quantitative survey instrument to investigate current consumer perceptions of e-commerce, from the perspective of both Internet and Non Internet users, and determined the main barrier to business to consumer (B2C) electronic commerce as identified by the potential consumers themselves. These quantitative findings were then used to further develop the model of trust, encompassing all the potential factors that the research identified could impact on a consumer's perceived level of trust in a web site, thus ultimately affecting their decision to purchase. This model was then tested through further qualitative research that incorporated observational studies to test consumer reactions to an onJine shopping scenario, using a special selection of web sites that should have (based on the model) a positive or negative influence on consumers' trust. Although the research design was qualitative in nature, a triangulation approach was adopted to ensure that the information generated was highly relevant and directly applicable to the creation of a model of trust. The model was revised, with the final version named the Model of Factors Affecting Consumer Trust Online (M.O.F.A.C.T.O). The implications of the model and recommendations for further research are discussed

Exploring determinants of self-service technology success in German food retail : a retail technology manufacturer case

This study explores strategic success determinants of self-service technologies (SSTs) in the German retail food industry of quick- and self-service restaurants from the perspective of a retail technology manufacturer. The current state of the academic literature primarily focuses on explaining influencing factors on the customer adoption rate of SSTs by consulting information systems success models and related technology acceptance theories. The underlying theoretical frameworks are based on DeLone and McLean’s updated Information Systems Success Model and on the third version of the Technology Acceptance Model. Variables related to customer experience and satisfaction are predominantly put into the focus of research projects available. Little attention though is being paid to non-customer-oriented success dimensions covering information quality or system quality of the SSTs under observation. Moreover, businesses developing and providing SSTs to retailers seem to be disregarded in the existing literature as well. As a single-case study design, this research programme seeks out to explore strategic SST success determinants via insights gathered from a major retail technology manufacturer delivering SST solutions to food retailers in Germany. Based on the data collected in semi-structured interviews conducted with industry experts from senior and top management functions in the company, strategic SST success factors are identified and aggregated into an overarching model of SST success for the retail food industry of quick- and self-service restaurants in Germany. The core focus thereby is on selfordering kiosks and self-checkout solutions as the most commonly used types of SSTs in this market. A pilot study was executed prior to the main study and demonstrated the methodology and research strategy to be appropriate for the research project, which bases its conceptual framework on the updated DeLone and McLean’s IS Success Model and concepts found in the third version of the Technology Acceptance Model. This research project contributes to the academic literature by providing a detailed collection of SST success determinants and dimensions relevant in the German retail food industry of quick- and self-service restaurants, which are arranged in a newly developed SST Success Model for this concrete use case in German food retail. The results of this study are of value for retail practitioners adopting self-service strategies and implementing SST solutions in store environments of quick- and self-service restaurants

Class distribution-aware adaptive margins and cluster embedding for classification of fruit and vegetables at supermarket self-checkouts

The complex task of vision based fruit and vegetables classification at a supermarket self-checkout poses significant challenges. These challenges include the highly variable physical features of fruit and vegetables i.e. colour, texture shape and size which are dependent upon ripeness and storage conditions in a supermarket as well as general product variation. Supermarket environments are also significantly variable with respect to lighting conditions. Attempting to build an exhaustive dataset to capture all these variations, for example a dataset of a fruit consisting of all possible colour variations, is nearly impossible. Moreover, some fruit and vegetable classes have significant similar physical features e.g. the colour and texture of cabbage and lettuce. Current state-of-the-art classification techniques such as those based on Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNNs) are highly prone to errors resulting from the inter-class similarities and intra-class variations of fruit and vegetable images. The deep features of highly variable classes can invade the features of neighbouring similar classes in a learned feature space of the DCNN, resulting in confused classification hyper-planes. To overcome these limitations of current classification techniques we have proposed a class distribution-aware adaptive margins approach with cluster embedding for classification of fruit and vegetables. We have tested the proposed technique for cluster-based feature embedding and classification effectiveness. It is observed that introduction of adaptive classification margins proportional to the class distribution can achieve significant improvements in clustering and classification effectiveness. The proposed technique is tested for both clustering and classification, and promising results have been obtained

New Card Technologies in Retail Banking: Competition and Collaboration in the 1990s

This thesis examines the alternative bank card technologies being considered for retail banking in the UK in the 1990s. Influential organisations suggest that this technology needs updating, and various new technologies are being developed. The thesis identifies the most influential organisations within four groups considered key for retail banking technology: the technology supply industry, the adopting industry, the market and other key players. The observations and analysis in this thesis are based on information provided by each of these four key groups, through written Surveys, face-to-face and telephone interviews, and from a range of written sources. A selection of past and present bank card trials are also described, with particular focus on the introduction of smart card technology. Results confirm that the innovation process in the retail banking industry accords with a highly interactive model, with feedback loops throughout the innovation process. The adopting industry is seen to follow the innovation process in the opposite direction to that experienced in manufacturing industry. Thus, smaller incremental innovations eventually lead to more radical changes which effect complete systems change on a national basis - a ‘reverse cycle’ model of innovation. The thesis analyses the evolution of competitive and cooperative strategies, particularly between banks and their collective organisations, building societies and retailers. The thesis concludes that the dominant institutions driving card technology innovation and standards globally are the international debit and credit card corporations Mastercard, VISA and Europay, operating through their organisation EMV. In the UK, the major clearing banks, and their ABACS organisation, and the large retailers are also key actors. The thesis suggests that smart card is the most likely to be adopted

Tecnología para Tiendas Inteligentes

Trabajo de Fin de Grado en Doble Grado en Ingeniería Informática y Matemáticas, Facultad de Informática UCM, Departamento de Ingeniería del Software e Inteligencia Artificial, Curso 2020/2021Smart stores technologies exemplify how Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things can effectively join forces to shape the future of retailing. With an increasing number of companies proposing and implementing their own smart store concepts, such as Amazon Go or Tao Cafe, a new field is clearly emerging. Since the technologies used to build their infrastructure offer significant competitive advantages, companies are not publicly sharing their own designs. For this reason, this work presents a new smart store model named Mercury, which aims to take the edge off of the lack of public and accessible information and research documents in this field. We do not only introduce a comprehensive smart store model, but also work-through a feasible detailed implementation so that anyone can build their own system upon it.Las tecnologías utilizadas en las tiendas inteligentes ejemplifican cómo la Inteligencia Artificial y el Internet de las Cosas pueden unir, de manera efectiva, fuerzas para transformar el futuro de la venta al por menor. Con un creciente número de empresas proponiendo e implementando sus propios conceptos de tiendas inteligentes, como Amazon Go o Tao Cafe, un nuevo campo está claramente emergiendo. Debido a que las tecnologías utilizadas para construir sus infraestructuras ofrecen una importante ventaja competitiva, las empresas no están compartiendo públicamente sus diseños. Por esta razón, este trabajo presenta un nuevo modelo de tienda inteligente llamado Mercury, que tiene como objetivo mitigar la falta de información pública y accesible en este campo. No solo introduciremos un modelo general y completo de tienda inteligente, sino que también proponemos una implementación detallada y concreta para que cualquier persona pueda construir su propia tienda inteligente siguiendo nuestro modelo.Depto. de Ingeniería de Software e Inteligencia Artificial (ISIA)Fac. de InformáticaTRUEunpu