Consumer Behavior in Staffless Stores: A Systematic Literature Review

Retail is facing several challenges, resulting in the constant need to adopt. One of such recent adoptions is a new form of physical retail called staffless stores. These stores do not employee staff and instead use state-of-the-art technologies to compensate the lack of staff. This leads to a completely different shopping experience. However, as with any innovation, the success of these stores relies on the consumers’ acceptance. Thus, it is critical for retailers to understand which factors influence the consumer behavior of such stores and how consumers react to them. Against this background, the purpose of this structured literature review is to analyze the extant literature on consumer behavior in staffless stores. After extensive initial screening, 22 papers were included in the analysis and synthesis phase of this literature review. We identified two main research streams in the area of staffless stores, namely, technology acceptance and adoption, and consumer experience and value creation. Additionally, we highlight several shortcomings in the current body of knowledge regarding consumer behavior in staffless stores, namely a lack of research regarding concepts, theories, methods, data, and applicability for practitioners. Overall, the review reveals that the topic of consumer behavior in staffless stores is largely under-researched. Based on our findings, we suggest a bouquet of avenues for future research.