International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies(iJIM) – eISSN: 1865-7923 – Vol 16 No 13 (2022) Short Paper—The Influence of Demographic Factors and Customer Traits on Intention to Use Self-Service… The Influence of Demographic Factors and Customer Traits on Intention to Use Self-Service Checkout at Tesco Tebrau https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v16i13.30603 Hairul Rizad Md Sapry1(), Nor Maisarah Zakaria1, Abd Rahman Ahmad2, Noor Irdiana Ngadiman1 1Industrial Logistics, Malaysian Institute of Industrial Technology (UniKL MITEC), Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Malaysia 2Faculty of Information Technology and Management, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn (UTHM), Johor, Malaysia hairulrizad@unikl.edu.my Abstract—This research paper emphasizes the relationship between certain variables that influence the consumer’s intention to use Self-Service Technolo- gies (SST) in the retail sector. With the rapid growth of technology, various tech- nological innovations are being introduced to make it easier for people to satisfy their needs and wants. One of the technologies that are very popular among cus- tomers is self-service checkout. However, previous studies on investigating the SST mainly focus on the technology adoption perspective and only a few studies have attempted to report from the consumer behavior perspective. As such, this paper aims to investigate the relationship between the customer’s traits (technol- ogy anxiety, need for interaction, technology innovativeness, and demographics) towards the consumer intention to use SST. Two hundred answers were collected randomly among the Tesco customer in Malaysia. The data were then analyzed using SmartPls version 3 to validate the developed hypothesis which forms the foundation for the research model. The finding revealed that only technology anxiety, technology innovativeness, and demographics affect the consumer inten- tion to use SST. The findings are important to the retailer to continue improving the current system in addressing 1. potential user (demographic), system com- plexity and safety (technology anxiety), and system features-interactive system (technology innovativeness) to give a different experience to the user as com- pared to traditional practice. Keywords—supply chain management, self-service kiosk, customer intention 1 Introduction Many service providers have implemented a technology known as Self-Service Technologies (SST) to provide their customers with convenient services to achieve or boost efficiency and satisfaction [1]. In addition, the goal is to provide consumers with access to services through modern and convenient [2]. Researchers and practitioners iJIM ‒ Vol. 16, No. 13, 2022 175 https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v16i13.30603 mailto:hairulrizad@unikl.edu.my Short Paper—The Influence of Demographic Factors and Customer Traits on Intention to Use Self-Service… alike have recognized the need to understand the effectiveness of these computer-based innovations for self-services. An important benefit of self-service technology has been its potential to reduce customer waiting times and improve customer service levels. Responding to the growth of technology, retailers increasingly considering interac- tive and innovative technology interfaces as such SST for delivery of a better service. The SST indicates that individuals can just perform their tasks with the use of tech- nology without getting direct personal help and support in sort of consumption [3]. Over the last five years, with these different forms of SST, self-service checkouts have evolved rapidly [4]. Self-service checkout is a modern electronic device that allows customers to scan, pack and pay for goods either on their own or with limited assistance from a cashier in retail stores. Retail self-checkouts offer significant advantages to customers and retailers alike. Bitner et al., [5] said that for supermarkets, possible operating cost savings could be the major reason behind the deployment of a self-service checkout. Among consum- ers, speed is described as the primary reason for preferring self-checkouts to personal assistance in the retail setting [6]. Self-service checkouts seem to help please certain customers whenever there is a long line on manual cashier lanes. Consumers who may not want to deal with cashiers also use self-checkout. In addition, offering more pay- ment choices, greater privacy, and control, and more flexibility are the key reasons for using self-service checkouts. However, some are lacking in the use of this self-service checkout or any other type of off SST due to some reason and determinants. This seems like it is influenced by the personal different characteristics of customers for not being interested to use this SST. Individual differences have been categorized into demographic or socio-economic fac- tors and consumer personality traits. Demographic and socio-economic variables have long been seen in the profile of consumer groups, as firms can present more accurate service and marketing adjust- ments related to specific target market segments. For instance, given that early adopter of new technology products are usually young and male customers, marketers can rep- resent a scenario in which young people or males are constantly using new technology products in advertising. In addition to demographic factors, consumer personality traits have a particular impact on the adoption of SST. This SST is well known due to its perception of faster, ease of use, and reliabil- ity, and functionality but it is still lacking in consumer behavior to use this kind of technology. This has been studied previously by the worldwide researcher on several factors or determinants such as in terms of technology readiness and adoption. How- ever, this study will focus on another dimension specifically on customer traits dimen- sion-technology anxiety. Need for interaction [7] Technology innovativeness [8] and demographics [7]. 2 Research model and hypothesis This study is intended as an analysis to understand the linkage between different consumer traits and demographic factors to the intention to use self-service checks out in the retail environment in Malaysia. 176 http://www.i-jim.org Short Paper—The Influence of Demographic Factors and Customer Traits on Intention to Use Self-Service… Technology Anexity Need for interaction Technology inovativeness Demoraphics Factors Intention to use self-service check out Fig. 1. Conceptual framework The study has adopted a model developed by Hyun-Joo et al., [9] which has been modified and refined to facilitate the development of the research hypothesis as follows: i. H1 – There is a relationship between demographic factors (a. gender, b. age, c. edu- cation) and the intention to use the self-service checkout. ii. H2 – There is a relationship between consumer technology anxiety and the intention to use self-service checkout. iii. H3 – There is a relationship between the consumer need for interaction and the intention to use the self-service checkout. iv. H4 – There is a relationship between consumer technology innovativeness and the intention to use the self-service checkout. 3 Methodology A purposive sampling method was used to collect two hundred questionnaires dis- tributed among the Tesco customer over a period of one month. The data obtained from the survey were analyzed using the partial least square (SmartPLS) 3.0 [10]. Three types of analysis namely descriptive analysis, a test of the measurement model, and a test of the structural model were carried out for this study. 4 Results and findings 4.1 Demographic profiles of respondents Table 1 displays the detailed characteristics of respondents in this study. The respon- dents in this study are different in the form of gender, age group, educational level. Based on Table 1, most respondents who participated in this study were female which represents 61.5 percent of the total respondent. Concerning the age group, most respon- dents were aged below 40 years old that represent about 65% of the total respondents. The remaining age group is consisting of between 40-49 years old which followed by iJIM ‒ Vol. 16, No. 13, 2022 177 Short Paper—The Influence of Demographic Factors and Customer Traits on Intention to Use Self-Service… the age group above 50 years old. Concerning educational level, most of the respon- dents were degree holders with 65 percent. Then, it was followed by a diploma and postgraduate degree. Table 1. Respondent profile Demographic Traits Frequency Percentage Gender Male 77 38.5 Female 123 61.5 Age 18-21 6 3 22-29 70 35 30-39 54 27 40-49 38 19 50 and above 32 16 Education High School or less 3 1.5 Diploma 55 27.5 Bachelor’s Degree 130 65 Master’s or Doctoral Degree 12 6 4.2 Assessment of outer model Analysis of the outer model is used to determine the appropriateness of the theoretically defined construct. The measurement model is examined to ensure the sur- vey questionnaire determines the variables that were supposed to measure, and simul- taneously makes sure that the instrument is reliable. In this process, three things are investigated which are factor loadings, composite reliability (CR), and average vari- ance extracted (AVE). Construct validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability. As suggested by Hair et al., [11] the extracted output from SmartPls was analyzed to calculate the average variance extracted (AVE), composite reliability (CR), and Cronbach’s Alpha, as shown in Table 2. All constructs achieved a higher Cronbach’s Alpha of more than 0.7 which was recommended by Hair et al., [11][12]. AVE and composite reliability (CR) result also shows all the constructs have achieved the minimum requirement for each parameter [11][13][14]. In general, the results show that all the five constructs technology anxiety, need for interaction, technology innovativeness, demographics, and intention to use are all valid measures of their respective constructs according to their parameter estimates and are statistically significant at p < 0.05. 178 http://www.i-jim.org Short Paper—The Influence of Demographic Factors and Customer Traits on Intention to Use Self-Service… Table 2. Construct validity, dimensionality, reliability, and item loadings Construct Item Loading AVE CR R2 Cronbach’s Alpha Technology Anxiety TA1 0.92 0.799 0.922 0.502 0.875TA2 0.933 TA3 0.852 Need for interaction NFI 0.859 0.701 0.875 0.800NF2 0.917 NF3 0.724 Technology Innovativeness TI1 0.92 0.799 0.922 0.875 TI2 0.933 TI3 0.825 Demographics D1 0.561 0.605 0.816 0.754D2 0.866 D3 0.866 Intention to use ITU1 0.864 0.571 0.798 0.735ITU2 0.725 ITU3 0.664 Further, the discriminant validity of the constructs was examined by following the Fornell and Larcker [15] criterion. This test is used to compare the correlations between constructs and the square root of the AVE for each construct applied in this study. The results in Table 3 show that all the values (diagonals) were higher than the conforming row and column values. Hence, it demonstrates that there is no discriminant validity issue for this study. Table 3. Construct validity, dimensionality, reliability, and item loadings Demo ITU NFI TA TI Demo 0.778 ITU 0.513 0.756 NFI 0.285 0.330 0.837 TA 0.330 0.647 0.527 0.984 TI 0.461 0.556 0.102 0.536 0.830 Note: Values in the diagonal (bolded) signify the square root of the AVE while the off-diagonals signify the correlations; Demo(Demographics), ITU (Intention to use), NFI (Need for interaction) TA (Technology Anxiety), TI (Technology Innovativeness). 4.3 Assessment of inner model Then, the next step is the assessment of the structural model (inner model) for exam- ining the hypothesized relationships between constructs in the intention to use by the respondent towards the self-service checkout. About R2, it shows that 50.2 percent of iJIM ‒ Vol. 16, No. 13, 2022 179 Short Paper—The Influence of Demographic Factors and Customer Traits on Intention to Use Self-Service… intention to use self-service check out is explained in this model (Table 2). The R2 value confirms a moderate model according to Chin [16]. 4.4 Hypotheses verification As illustrated in Table 4, the results indicate that only three hypotheses (H1, H3, and H4) have supported the intention to use the self-service checkout. Table 4. Summary of hypotheses testing results Hypothesis Relationship Std Beta Std Error t-Value Decision HI Demo -> ITU 0.170 0.084 2.013 Supported H2 NFI -> ITU 0.700 0.084 0.598 Not supported H3 TA -> ITU 0.382 0.108 3.607 Supported H4 TI -> ITU 0.272 0.100 2.658 Supported Note: **p˂0.01; *p˂0.05. Fig. 2. Graphical representation of inner model after the bootstrapping procedure 5 Conclusion This study provides an insight into the intention to use self-service checkout in Malaysia. The model was developed to facilitate the investigation of a prob- able relationship between technology anxiety, need for interaction, technology 180 http://www.i-jim.org Short Paper—The Influence of Demographic Factors and Customer Traits on Intention to Use Self-Service… Innovativeness, and demographics of the respondents. The findings found that tech- nology anxiety, technology innovativeness, and demographics, pose a positive and sig- nificant direct effect on the intention to use the self-service checkout, with technology anxiety having become the strongest effect. The finding supported [17][18] that sug- gested technology anxiety is more influential in adopting self-service technology and associated to the consumers who are less technologically anxious are more likely to use self-service technology. In this study, the Q2 value for intention to use the self-service checkout (Q2 = 0.246) is more than 0. Hence, the model of this study has sufficient or large predictive relevance [11][19]. In response to the rapid development of technology, self-service technology is potentially to take over a human role in the service facility, to further minimize the costs and improve service efficiency, not only for the company, but it can also save time for consumers. Therefore, this study is important to identify and assess the insight of customers to understand the difference in demographics towards technology anxiety and technology innovativeness to facilitate the continued creation of this kind of tech- nology in the future. Long lines have always been an inconvenience and a pain point in the shopping experience. Understanding the technology innovations by developing an interactive self-checkout kiosk will make the retailer business more dynamic and help minimize the bottleneck that is the checkout experience at many businesses. Self-service check- out also can be customizable in creating additional value to the consumer by suggesting a complimentary item or a strong value upsell in a way that does not slow down their checkout process. Customers who take advantage of these point-of-sale offers may help increase the retailer per-customer revenues. Self-checkout has also become closely associated with safety, which will continue to be paramount. In examining how the pandemic has shifted attitudes towards self-checkout, the increased and overall use of self-service checkout kiosks shows there is likely a per- vasive attitude among consumers that kiosks provide a safe shopping option—and one potentially perceived as safer than interacting with a cashier. 6 Acknowledgment We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to all the respondents who took part in this research. 7 References [1] Hung-Tai Tsou and Hsuan-Yu Hsu (2017). 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International Journal of Online & Biomedical Engineering. 2021 Dec 1; Vol. 17 No. 12. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v17i12.25483 182 http://www.i-jim.org https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.64.3.50.18024 http://www.ihlservices.com/ihl/public_downloads/pdf5.pdf https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2002.8951333 https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2002.8951333 http://academic.marketresearch.com/ https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.69.2.61.60759 https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.69.2.61.60759 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-007-0051-3 http://www.smartpls.com/ https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104 https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v15i18.25535 https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v15i18.25531 https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v15i18.25531 https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v17i12.25483 Short Paper—The Influence of Demographic Factors and Customer Traits on Intention to Use Self-Service… 8 Authors Hairul Rizad Md Sapry, Industrial Logistics, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Institute of Industrial Technology (UniKL MITEC), 81750, Masai, Johor. Malaysia. Nor Maisarah Zakaria, Industrial Logistics, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Institute of Industrial Technology (UniKL MITEC), 81750, Masai, Johor, Malaysia. E-mail: normaesarah@gmail.com Abd Rahman Ahmad, Faculty of Information Technology and Management, Uni- versiti Tun Hussein Onn (UTHM), 86400 Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia. E-mail: arah- man@uthm.edu.my Noor Irdiana Ngadiman, Industrial Logistics, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Institute of Industrial Technology (UniKL MITEC), 81750, Masai, Johor, Malaysia. E-mail: noorirdiana@unikl.edu.my Article submitted 2022-03-12. Resubmitted 2022-04-19. Final acceptance 2022-04-19. Final version published as submitted by the authors. iJIM ‒ Vol. 16, No. 13, 2022 183 mailto:normaesarah@gmail.com mailto:arahman@uthm.edu.my mailto:arahman@uthm.edu.my mailto:noorirdiana@unikl.edu.my