WUDESHI-DR 2020 Abstracts

Area 1 - Customers Interaction with Retail Technologies

Full Papers

Paper Nr:	1
Title:	Immersive Technologies in Retail: Practices of Augmented and Virtual Reality
Authors:	Costas Boletsis and Amela Karahasanovic
Abstract:	In this work, we examine the value that immersive technologies can bring to retailing through the retail practices they facilitate. To that end, a literature review is conducted resulting in the documentation of 28 augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications from 38 publications. After analyzing the applications’ functionality and use in retail, the following AR/VR-enabled retail practices emerged: branding and marketing; sales channel; after-sale customer service; virtual try-on; customer-as-designer; virtual training; and workflow management. A principal observation from the analysis is that current AR/VR applications are used mainly for customer-related innovation, with “branding and marketing” being a dominant practice. Simultaneously, some practices are available to serve organization-related and support-related innovation. Finally, it was observed that AR is a popular technology in the retail environment and of high practical value, being an ideal fit for the purchase journey and workflow management. However, VR is more difficult to implement in retail, as it can be more expensive and complicated to integrate with the sales channel. However, it can create strong emotional engagement due to high immersion and act as a useful tool for branding and training. Therefore, these two technologies in retail and their strengths can supplement each other, thereby creating promising innovation strategies when combined.

Paper Nr:	4
Title:	Who Wants to Use an Augmented Reality Shopping Assistant Application?
Authors:	Daniel Mora, Robert Zimmermann, Douglas Cirqueira, Marija Bezbradica, Markus Helfert, Andreas Auinger and Dirk Werth
Abstract:	Brick-and-mortar retailers need to stay competitive to the convenience provided by online channels. Technologies, such as personalized shopping assistants on smartphones can empower customers in-store towards a similar experience as in an online scenario. For instance, an augmented reality shopping assistance application with explainable recommendations (XARSAA) can mimic the behavior of recommender systems in personalizing offers to consumers in physical shops. However, before deploying such technologies, it is essential that retailers get to know the demographics of their customer base. Existing literature rarely addresses the influence of customers demographics towards XARSAA technologies. Therefore, we follow a design science approach, and develop an instantiation of a XARSAA artifact, which is artificially evaluated through a controlled online user experiment with 315 participants. Results illustrate multiple demographics which influence customers attitude towards an augmented reality shopping assistant application in brick-and-mortar stores. Additionally, we provide insights into the design of such technology to guide researchers in its implementation.

Area 2 - Retailers Interaction with Decision Support Tools

Full Papers

Paper Nr:	2
Title:	Visualising Trade-offs of Objectives in Omnichannel Management: A Mental Model Approach
Authors:	Gültekin Cakir
Abstract:	The retail industry is undergoing a major transformation process and retailers struggle in implementing a sustainable omnichannel strategy. For retailers, it is of crucial importance to achieve channel integration in order to generate a seamless customer experience. At the same time, balancing profitability while undergoing transition into omnichannel retailing poses a major challenge for many retail managers. These trade-offs can increase complexity and additional difficulties in decision-making. Mental models help to understand complex systems and behaviour and can support managers in decision-making processes. This paper proposes early work and an initial concept of a mental model arranging three critical objectives in omnichannel management: channel integration, customer experience generation, and economic value creation. Through a Venn Diagram approach, the relations between the objectives along with various scenarios of their achievements are illustrated, representing different states a retailer can undergo while following a transition towards omnichannel. Recommendations for actions are outlined for each scenario which can help retail managers to mentally depict dynamic relationships between objectives.

Paper Nr:	3
Title:	Towards a Taxonomy for Buy Online Pick up in Store Service
Authors:	Artem Bielozorov
Abstract:	Following the best practices in retail, along with home delivery, many companies also offer customers the option to buy online and pick up in store (BOPIS). The paper provides insights into the essential components of the BOPIS service conceptualized in the form of a taxonomy together with literature review on omnichannel retail and channel integration quality dimensions. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussion in the scope of case study with an Irish retailer. The study represents a valuable contribution into the existing body of knowledge on omnichannel retail.

Paper Nr:	6
Title:	Explainable Sentiment Analysis Application for Social Media Crisis Management in Retail
Authors:	Douglas Cirqueira, Fernando Almeida, Gültekin Cakir, Antonio Jacob, Fabio Lobato, Marija Bezbradica and Markus Helfert
Abstract:	Sentiment Analysis techniques enable the automatic extraction of sentiment in social media data, including popular platforms as Twitter. For retailers and marketing analysts, such methods can support the understanding of customers’ attitudes towards brands, especially to handle crises that cause behavioural changes in customers, including the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with the increasing adoption of black-box machine learning-based techniques, transparency becomes a need for those stakeholders to understand why a given sentiment is predicted, which is rarely explored for retailers facing social media crises. This study develops an Explainable Sentiment Analysis (XSA) application for Twitter data, and proposes research propositions focused on evaluating such application in a hypothetical crisis management scenario. Particularly, we evaluate, through discussions and a simulated user experiment, the XSA support for understanding customer’s needs, as well as if marketing analysts would trust such an application for their decision-making processes. Results illustrate the XSA application can be effective in providing the most important words addressing customers sentiment out of individual tweets, as well as the potential to foster analysts’ confidence in such support.

Short Papers

Paper Nr:	5
Title:	The Impact of the Transparency Consent Framework on Current Programmatic Advertising Practices
Authors:	Hubert Pawlata and Gültekin Cakir
Abstract:	With General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced, many online advertising practices were affected as data-driven techniques were inhibited by missing user consents. Meanwhile, the IAB Europe introduced the Transparency and Consent Framework to adapt the GDPR requirements into the online advertising ecosystem and provide support in handling consent management for involved actors. In this paper, the impact of the new framework from a programmatic advertising campaign perspective is reflected from a practitioner point of view and implications of missing user consent in five typical techniques which are applied in programmatic campaigns (targeting, retargeting, frequency capping, frequency tracking and cross-device targeting) are addressed and also viewed from an e-commerce perspective. The discussion indicates potential losses in the effectiveness of the applied techniques as well as a potential shift in the market towards walled-garden DSPs such as Google or Facebook. It further provides awareness to raise the potential implications addressed and open future work in this regard.