Since the beginning of retail in the early 1800s, the technology has continued to impact the retail industry and consumer expectations using state-of-the-art technology. Technological changes have affected how consumers interact with retailers in their consumption of products and services.
The introduction of the cash register in 1883, bank credit cards, barcodes in the 1950s and later e-commerce in the mid-1990s encouraged shoppers spending. As a fact, no other sector has witnessed such severe changes in consumer behaviour due to technological advancements (Ferry Anthony, 2018).
The department stores of the 1800s heralded the emergence of retailing as the modern retail industry. Retail as an organised sector started in the 19th centuries with the increase of urban covered markets, speciality shops, and department stores. Thus, this transition from small store model of speciality stores to the department store model not only provided broader options to shoppers but also increase store traffic, therefore, supported the growth of retail technologies in the department store age (Liate Kabbo, 2014). During this time in 1883, the first cash register was created by James Ritty, which was used by retailers primarily as calculating machines and to keep the cash safely locked. Another significant development in technology in retail came with Frank Woolworth’s innovation of stores as a self-service model. The opening of Selfridge’s London department store in 1909 marked the UK’s transition from small shops to departmental stores. (mi9retail, 2019). The notion of self-service is not recent, in 1916 Clarence Saunders developed a new concept for supermarkets in the USA, allowing consumers to use their shopping cart and pick their products on their shelves without the help of shopkeepers. Saunders ‘ supermarket, the Piggly Wiggly, rapidly became the modern supermarket model and the start of retail self-service (NCR Corporation, 2014).
In the period from the 1940s to 1970 shopping malls, open-air location strip malls, as well as mass retailers, were opened as people were moving to the suburbs (mi9retail, 2019). During this time in the early 1960s, modern plastic credit cards popularity increased because consumers want to spend more on credit (Liate Kabbo, 2014). In the 1970s, retail becomes an automated industry as the first point of sale (POS) system introduced in 1978, which enabled the better organisation and quicker checkout for retailers (Metcalfe Luke, 2017). Many previous radical, innovative technologies changed the face of retail as barcodes invented in 1952, even used till date in retail stores. Barcodes are machine-readable codes that revolutionise the way stores operate in terms of stock tracking and for quicker checkout process (Liate Kabbo, 2014). In 1980s Irish retailers and manufacturers founded European Article Number (EAN) code/UPC Barcodes, these are the commonly used GS1 barcodes, which added value to the Irish retailers and suppliers and improved their business efficiency (O’Callaghan & O’Riordan, 2012). The EAN which was initially European Article Number now referred to as International Article Number is a 13-digit number found below the barcode. EAN is a series of letters and numbers in a unique order that helps identify specific products (Black Jordie, 2018). Thus, barcodes and scan-based trading technology brought fundamental automation during the 1980s. Barcode systems are assisting the retailers in bringing efficiencies in loss prevention systems and supply chain optimisation (Frew Dean, 2016)
In the 1990s, the commercial use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) became game-changer as this technology helped in tracking products across the supply chain and improved logistics and distribution process. Later by 2000, RFID technology was making barcodes obsoletes and supported retailers to increase security against theft and streamlined the inventory process (Radley, 2017). RFID tags are benefiting retailers across business processes from item-level inventory management to tracking shoppers buying behaviour, thus enabling new customer experience for omnichannel execution (Frew Dean, 2016). RFID technology supports grocery retailers as it reduces the need for physical verification of products across stores, warehouse or on the move in real-time, thus reducing stockouts and labour cost. RFID tags and scanners play a significant role for shoppers by decreasing the checkout time, thus improving customer satisfaction(Frew Dean, 2016). Walmart was the first grocery retailer to embrace the RFID technology in 2003 by introducing RFID tags to their products to monitor inventory and deter shoplifters(Jung Horst, 2018).
With the emergence of the Internet in the 1990s, e-commerce disrupted the retail sector. In the 1970s, electronic data interchange (EDI) and teleshopping paved the way for modern-day e-commerce retail. Introduction of e-commerce or online shopping not only brought changes to the shopper’s habits but also eliminated the international border for retailers. Retailers like Amazon and eBay launched e-commerce in 1995 that changed the global retail landscape as they offered millions of products online (Liate Kabbo, 2014). In the early 2000s introduction of broadband increased online buying. Due to the easier access to the internet, the average time spent by shoppers for searching products reduced and opened the online world to consumers. Shoppers are now looking for more competitive offers across channels, which led to the growth of digital retail. Primarily growth of e-commerce is due to shopper’s convenience, price advantage and choice of large product assortment. Further improvement of secure online payments enabled by eBay owned Paypal improved the online shopping experience and paved the path for e-commerce and mobile commerce (Adamson Lucy, 2016).
The growth of e-commerce has increased since the 2010s with the development of mobile smartphone and social media platforms. The advent of mobile technology has seen more and more customers shop on their mobile devices. With Google always at their fingertips, shoppers now switch to the internet to read reviews or search for online deals, just before buying online or in-store(Adamson Lucy, 2016). Due to technological improvements, the concept of retail channels has evolved from the store to multi-channel, and new business model emerged as omnichannel (Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson, 2014). The advent of the omnichannel concept is an evolution of the earlier multichannel approach, in reaction to the consumer’s longing for an embedded, seamless retail experience across all channels (Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson, 2014). It also involves increasingly important technological investments, such as advanced data and analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), digital store technology or automated checkouts that shoppers will use across channels to communicate with brands (Witcher Brendan, 2019).
