Using smartphones for information retrieval in omnichannel scenarios—Assessing the effectiveness of technological triggers

Abstract

The use of consumer-owned technologies increasingly gains importance while shopping in brick and mortar retail stores. This is especially important when considering young focus groups like the digital natives that have grown up with mobile devices as their primary means of entertainment. Nevertheless, little is known about the entry points into the omnichannel customer journey and which technologies and methods can be applied by a retailer to steer the user to the most appropriate information source. This paper investigates the effectiveness and attractiveness of different technological triggers, respectively entry points for information retrieval in a physical store environment by using consumer-owned smartphones. The results of a laboratory experiment conducted amongst 191 participants are presented and transferred into recommendations for action. As an implication for future research a concept is presented that intends to reveal the influence of computer-related attribution styles towards the willingness of using different trigger technologies like QR codes or NFC.