The Adoption of RFID-based Self-Check-Out-Systems at the Point-of-Sale - An empirical Investigation

It is the aim of this paper to identify the most important factors that influence a retail company's expectations and motivations regarding RFID implementation at the point-of-sale based on empirical data. The data for our research was gathered by means of a questionnaire and analysed using a structural equation model. The results suggest that retailers which expect a high potential from RFID use intend to adopt early compared to the industry average. Interestingly, the current level of RFID capabilities does not seem to influence the expected timing of adopting RFID-based check-outs. However, our results show that companies which expect high potential benefits have significantly higher levels of RFID knowledge. Customer waiting time seems to be a main driver for companies to examine new technologies such as RFID-based check-out terminals. Retailers that recognize customer waiting time in front of the POS terminal as a problem expect higher benefits from RFID and are more innovative with regard to POS technology. Contrary to our expectations, pressure to save personnel costs did not have a significant impact on the assessment of expected benefits from RFID. This indicates that the main driver for companies to consider RFID for automating the check-out process is customer service rather than cost savings.