“Delighting customers: Evaluating service quality and customer satisfaction of self-checkout users in sports retail”

Digitalization has transformed dynamics across all fields, and technology has completely changed the customer experience. One prominently utilized technology in offline retail is self-checkout services. The present study intends to investigate the attributes that influence people to use self-checkout services and assess their impact on service quality and customer satisfaction. Drawn from Dabholkar’s attribute-based model, the study employs a positivist approach to test the conceptual framework. After the preliminary survey of 330 respondents, it identified ninety-nine consumers who had used the self-service check-out facility. The data collected were analyzed using a multi-variate technique – Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) – owing to the small sample size requirement. All independent variables taken for the study positively affect the service quality. Customer perception of control, ease of use, reliability, enjoyment, speed, adventure, and openness positively affect service quality. It was noted that ease of use, with a variance value of 2.451, and openness to experience, with a variance value of 2.437, show the importance of determining independent variables with service quality. The study findings reported that service quality is primarily influenced by ease of use, enjoyment, and openness to experience. It underlines that some retail customers will likely feel frustrated rather than enjoy the self-service technology, perceiving it as less reliable. The study suggests incorporating openness to experience and adventure shopping in retail outlets that can enhance consumer satisfaction and loyalty. Adopting an immersive and interactive shopping experience will ultimately improve the perception of service quality and customer happiness.


INTRODUCTION
In modern era, technology is integral to all aspects of human life, including purchase behavior.Retail stores leverage emerging technologies to provide customers with an enhanced shopping experience via efficient digital interactive platforms (Bulmer et al., 2018).Waiting at checkout counters results in fatigue and boredom for the consumers, affecting their satisfaction.One of the recent practices adopted by retailers to enhance customer satisfaction is the introduction of self-checkout facilities, which curtails the average customer wait time.Dabholkar (1996) coined the term "selfservice technology" (SST), which refers to technologically-based activities or benefits performed by consumers themselves.
Self-service checkout is a gateway to providing service using technology intervention (Thomas-Francois & Somogyi, 2022).Here, transactions happen more independently and without the involvement of a service employee.Self-checkout counters enhance the possibility of customers' perception of reduced waiting time by giving them the impression of perceived control over check-out-related activities.Amongst the various types of self-service checkouts, retail checkouts have a high adoption rate due to enhanced efficiency, convenience, and productivity (Jeonet al., 2020).In-store technologies innovated by sports retail stores are gaining customer favor, offering them additional, more accessible, and convenient ways to make purchases (Alexander & Kent, 2021).In sports retail, customers' emotional involvement, sense of community, and unpredictable nature are distinctive.Customer personality traits lean towards embracing challenges and exhibit a pronounced inclination towards inherent novelty seeking (Duarte et al., 2022).
Digitalization is transforming dynamics across all fields.Consequently, retailers must continuously upgrade themselves and incorporate the latest technology (Bulmer et al., 2018).With the advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), retailers focus on cost-effective alternatives and enhancing the overall customer experience (Grewal et al., 2023).The recent surge in customer interest in sports and physical well-being has significantly impacted sports-related product purchases, leading to the rise of specialty sports stores.Like other retail establishments, sports retail has embraced technology-assisted services (Basu et al., 2022).Several sports retail stores in India have successfully implemented self-checkout technology.The value of global self-checkout industry size is slated to grow at 13.3% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) from 2021 to 2030 (Grand View Research, 2022).With the increasing use of SST by organizations, encouraging consumers to handle check-out tasks themselves, it is critical to comprehend the probable impact of the quality of this emergent technology on the intention to purchase and satisfaction (Isharyani et al., 2024).

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES
Self-checkout is a significant innovative practice that retailers have adopted to enhance the customer experience.Self-checkouts (SCOs), commonly known as assisted checkouts (ACOs), offer customers a mechanism to complete transactions without the need for traditional staffed checkout assistance (Penttinen & Rinta-Kahila, 2021).While using self-checkouts, the customers must scan the barcodes of the goods they intend to purchase, eliminating the need for one-to-one staff assistance.Usually, at least one staff member oversees the entire activity and may extend assistance while transaction processing if required.In-store ambiance, waiting time, and many customers significantly influence the utilization of self-checkout services (Dabholkar & Bagozzi, 2002).The presence of a substantial number of customers, particularly on weekdays when many are in a hurry, also plays a role in influencing customers to opt for self-checkout services ( As defined by Bateson (1987), the attribute of control refers to the level of authority a consumer experiences over the checkout process.It is anticipated that the level of control a consumer has over the checkout process is directly proportional to SST service quality.Individual personality dimensions shape the consumers' behavior regarding self-checkouts in retail.Customers with high authoritative traits tend to prefer and engage in self-checkout services.Especially in sports retail, the customer's personality is of that kind that they want to have a free and liberal experience within the store and increase in authority because technology is giving a boost and overall gives better control and thus helps in enhancing the service quality of sports retail (Yosida et al., 2017).
The following attributes are enjoyment, fun, and joy derived from self-service technology.
Customers are inclined to use technology because it provides an enjoyable experience (Dabholkar, 1996).Individuals who find the enjoyment aspect of the experience thrilling and motivating are more inclined to adopt technology for that specific reason.Customers coming to sports retail love to play with technology and its gaming mindset, which gives them a feeling of fun with the use of technology, and that creates a service quality enhancer while using the self-checkouts at the sports retail counter.The fun of novelty-seeking experiences in using new technology gives them adventure and fun with the touch of novelty.Again, it helps in service quality development in sports retail outlets.
If a technology absorbs too much time and effort from a consumer, it fails to fulfill its primary purpose: simplify consumers' lives (Cui et al., 2022).Ease of use is linked to convenience and significantly influences customers' cognitive aspects."Perceived ease of use" is defined as "the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort" (Davis, 1989, p. 320) and would reduce social vulnerability, as not using technology sometimes causes stress for customers (Dabholkar, 1996).Those who do not perceive value in terms of performance or effort reduction by using a particular product may lack motivation for using it.The utilitarian function of technology with self-checkouts creates ease of process, less time, less waiting time at the counter, and more flexibility during the overall purchase process, increasing the service quality of sports retail outlets.
Given the compulsory nature of online payments and product scanning in self-service technology, malfunctions may lead to issues such as payment failures, product exclusion from the bill, double scanning, and inconvenience and disutility for consumers.Higher reliability is associated with a lower risk of malfunctioning."Reliability" implies the level of accuracy and dependability of self-service technology (Hong & Ahn, 2023).The reliability of technology is considered an essential tool for creating trust.Reliability enhances the quality of the service.In retail service, consistency, and trust play critical roles.Consistency is giving uniformity in multiple experiences, consistently delivering the service with the same quality.Similarly, trust in service delivery motivates the adoption of SST.customers are looking for more swiftness in service, and speed also drives the quality of service in sports retail.Here, speed is another critical factor, defined as the fastness of technology and its ability to reduce delivery and service time (Fernandes & Pedroso, 2016).As human interaction is unavailable, there are self-service checkouts that save time, and billing happens fast with less hassle.In turn, speed in billing and less waiting time enhance the service experience within sports retail.
In Though adoption and intention-related studies in the context of self-service technology are frequent, scant research has been done in the area of impact assessment toward satisfaction and retention of customers (Leng et al., 2017).With an increasing trend of self-checkout system usage in sports retail outlets (Duarte et al., 2022) and a lack of studies explicitly addressing self-checkout implementation in the Indian context, it becomes crucial to identify the factors that drive consumers to use self-checkout services and their impact on service quality and customer satisfaction.
Hence, the following hypotheses were formulated.
H1: Customer perception of control significantly and positively influences service quality among sports retail.
H2: Customer perception of enjoyment positively and significantly influences service quality in sports retail.
H3: Customer perception of ease of use exerts a positive and significant influence on service quality of SST.H4: Customer perception of reliability significantly and positively impacts service quality in sports retail.
H5: Customer perception of speed positively impacts service quality in sports retail.
H6: Customer perception of adventure shopping positively affects service quality in sports retail.
H7: Customer perception of openness to experience positively impacts service quality in sports retail.
H8: Service quality has a significant, positive effect on customer satisfaction.

METHODOLOGY
The study analyzed customer satisfaction associated with SST in sports retail stores in Pune.A convenient sampling method targeted individuals who have shopped from retail stores.Three hundred thirty people were surveyed through a well-structured questionnaire, and incomplete responses were eliminated.After the data screening process, 99 data points (see Assessing customer satisfaction with SST in sports retail stores involved exploring various formative and reflective constructs to measure latent variables.The interlinkages between these variables were effectively assessed using the multivariate technique PLS-SEM, which is distribution-assumption-free and capable of handling complex models.

RESULTS
The multivariate data analysis was performed in two stages.It involved assessing the measurement model, evaluating the structural model and employing the measurement and structural equation models.2, which details the parameter estimations for outer loadings.
The outer loadings in Table 2 indicate how well the indicator represents the underlying construct.The threshold levels were set, and items with loadings below the specified threshold were removed from the model.Items EOU2, OTE2, and SP3 were excluded from the model due to their low factor loadings, ensuring that only items with substantial relationships with their respective constructs were retained for further analysis.
Indicatoreliability and internal consistency are measured using conservative measures of Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability.The construct reliability is established as all the values meet the acceptance criteria 0.7 (see Table 2).Convergent validity is assessed using average variance extracted (AVE), which implies how much the variance is extracted by latent construct based on its indicators.Since all AVE values align with the acceptance criteria 0.5, convergent validity stands established.
Discriminant validity measures the distinctiveness of the constructs measured using the HTMT ratio (Henseler et al., 2017).It is below the prescribed limit of 0.90 in almost all cases except the correlation between AS and E, OTE, and SQ (Hair et al., 2013).However, Henseler et al. (2017) recommended a threshold limit 1.Hence, the discriminant validity condition in the measurement model is fulfilled (see Table 3).These findings collectively validate the measurement model, providing a solid foundation for subsequent structural equation modeling and lending credibility to the constructs utilized in the study.

Structural model
The measurement model assessment was followed by examining a structural model that connects the relationships between the latent variables.Further, NFI, a goodness-of-fit indicator, lies between 0 and 1 (see Table 6).As per Table 6, the SRMR value (0.074) is less than the prescribed limit of 0.08, implying that the model is bad only to 7.4 %.
Hypotheses H1-H7 investigate the relationships between dimensions, such as SP influencing SQ or AS influencing E. The dimension correlations indicate the strength and direction of association between the variables, and the findings of the analysis provide useful information.For example, H1 suggests a positive relationship between SP and SQ.Dimension correlation is 0.279, indicating a All hypotheses are accepted if the evaluation criteria (t-statistics > 1.96 or p <0.05) are met (see Table 7).As shown in Figure 2, these findings collectively contribute to the credibility of the empirical model.The inner model calculates p-values and t-values meticulously, confirming the dependability of the proposed relationships.The empirical evidence supports the structural model's validity by emphasizing the importance of the identified behavioral constructs and their interconnected pathways.
All the path relations shown in Figure 2 are significant, implying that all predictors have a positive and significant effect on both outcome variables.

DISCUSSION
In the study, the highly cited dimensions of SST were rigorously evaluated -speed, ease of use, control, reliability, and enjoyment -through measurement and structural models.The research conducted among users of self-service technology at sports retail indicates that enjoyability and reliability do not significantly influence consumer satisfaction.However, psychological attributes like adventure shopping and openness to experience strongly predicted service quality and customer satisfaction.Consistent with Dabholkar's attribute model, control, speed, and ease of use were significant and crucial predictors in the model.These attributes also significantly impacted consumer satisfaction (Dabholkar, 1996).The previous research by Nusrat and Huang (2024) confirmed the role and impact of ease of use on service quality and loyalty of customers in sports retail.Customer motivation has been studied earlier on their motion factors like hedonic, playfulness, utilitarian, and functional value, enhancing the user's sports retail experience (Bonfanti et al.,2023)

CONCLUSION
The study aimed to investigate the attributes that influence people to use self-checkout services and, ultimately, assess its impact on service quality and customer satisfaction.The empirical relations were tested and validated using PLS-SEM, leading to a good predictive model.The study finding emphasizes that service quality is primarily influenced by ease of use, speed, and control rather than enjoyment and reliability along with the adventure shopping attribute.
The study's uniqueness lies in extending Dabholkar's model to the sports retail segment, resulting in theory generalization.It advanced the understanding of factors motivating consumers' use of SST in sports retail.It offers a perspective on attributes that sports shoppers seek, thereby contributing to the existing literature on offline retail experience with the use of technology, focusing on self-checkouts and their impact on service quality and satisfaction.Additionally, this study expands the scope of Dabholkar's model by introducing additional attributes relevant to SST in retail sports outlets.
The current study is relevant for offline and sports retailers, offering insights into the crucial attributes in maintaining service quality and ultimately impacting customer satisfaction.In the present context, where offline retailers recognize the significance of touchpoints that can provide a competitive edge over online stores, it becomes crucial for them to prioritize attributes influencing service quality.Sports customers, characterized as task-oriented, ego-oriented, and socially approved-oriented, focus on attributes that enhance service quality.For sports shoppers, shopping does not mean to be a recreational activity but an integral part of their sports, and self-checkouts contribute significantly to customer satisfaction in sports retail.I control the entire billing process using the technology of assisted checkout rather than a personal encounter.

C2
Having control over the entire checkout process makes me confident.

C3
By controlling the entire checkout process through self-billing, I can bill at my own pace and convenience.

C4
Having control over the entire checkout process makes me independent and free.

E1
The Self-billing process is enjoyable.

7-Likert E2
It is exciting and fun to go through the self-billing process.

E3
I am amused that I can check out my items without human interaction.

E4
I feel thrilled to have control over the entire self-billing process.
Predictor variable Ease of use

EOU1
Self-billing at Decathlon is easy to use.

7-Likert EOU2
My user experience with self-billing at Decathlon was easy to understand.EOU3 I could easily navigate the entire self-billing process at Decathlon.

R1
The self-billing process at Decathlon is reliable.

R2
I feel secure when making online payments during the self-billing process.

R3
The Decathlon app should not misuse my data during self-billing.

R4
It is reliable to shop at Decathlon without a hard copy of the bill (due to self-billing).

SP1
The billing process is speedy because of self-billing (due to skipping long queues).

7-Likert SP2
Time taken for unproductive waiting can be utilized for extra shopping.

SP3
Time is saved as long queues are skipped.
Predictor variable Service quality SQ1 I find the entire self-billing process at Decathlon Pune Smooth and hassle-free.

7-Likert SQ2
I can carry out the entire self-billing process without any interruptions.

SQ3
The self-billing technology at Decathlon Pune is very time-saving.

SQ4
The self-billing technology used at Decathlon Pune is very Efficient.

Dependent variable
Consumer satisfaction CS1 I am satisfied with the entire self-billing process at Decathlon Pune.

CS2
The self-billing experience is better than the traditional style (Waiting in a queue to have the items checked out by a store operator).

CS3
As I am satisfied with the self-billing process, I am willing to do it again.

CS4
I would choose self-billing over the traditional checkout whenever I visit Decathlon Pune.

Predictor variable
Adventure shopping

AS1
To me, shopping is an adventure.

Predictor variable
Openness to experience OTE1 I always prefer novelty and variety while shopping.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Structural model Assessment-Output derived from Smart PLS-4 software (Liang et al., 2022)like the interest in sports and adventure, customers are more inclined toward adventure shopping(Liang et al., 2022).Adventure shopping, defined as the act of simulat- (Halvorsrud et al., 2016)2017)another world during shopping( Arnoldet al., 2003), is particularly significant in sports retail, where consumers are inherently more adventurous.Consumers' inclination and interest in exploring the adventure of self-checkouts are emphasized(Triantafillidou et al., 2017).The thrill, fun, and adventure associated with self-checkout contribute to positive shopping motivation.Recognizing that service quality is cocreated by customers, a lack of customer involvement cannot create a suitable dimension of service quality in any service.;Linet al., 2011).Additional research has explored challenges associated with adopting self-service checkouts.Personal and demographic factors and their impact on service quality and customer satisfaction have also been examined in prior studies(Halvorsrud et al., 2016).

Table 1
) were used for the final analysis.Sports shoppers use two types of self-service technology (SST): one involving customers scanning their items themselves and checking out, and the other using RFID boxes.Out of the 99 respondents, 42 shoppers used 'scan with mobile and pay,' 19 shoppers used scanning counters, and 38 people used both types of SST.

Table 2 .
Assessment of measurement model

Table 5 .
R 2 and Q 2 values

Table 6 .
Model fit

Table 7 .
Path analysis