Retailing and Technological Affordances: Understanding the Subjective Realities of Interactive Buying through Scan and Go Apps

Purpose (limit 100 words) The present research explores how three types of selected technological affordances (perceived affordance, imagined affordance and actualized affordance) of scan and go (S&G) apps facilitate customers’ achievement of goals in retail shopping. It fills an important gap in the literature by exploring how consumers interpret, anticipate and experience S&G apps in an in-store shopping environment. Design/methodology/approach (limit 100 words) A phenomenological hermeneutic approach was taken to examine the experiences of customers using S&G apps. Data were extracted from online reviews and social media posts that specifically described in-store Scan & Go app use, along with focus group discussions. An Affordance-Driven Interactive Buying Process model was then developed through six steps of systematic thematic analysis. Findings (limit 100 words) The results reveal three kinds of affordances of S&G apps. Perceived affordance arose from interactive features, such as smart carts, and availability features, such as product location and mobile holders. These shape the way users perceive system opportunities. Imagined affordance was fuelled by customers’ anticipations based on the environment, including socialisation components, such as shared lists and gamification, and frugality components, such as eco cashback. Actualised affordance describes how a user’s capability enables or limits the successful application of a S&G app’s functions; it was illustrated by support tools (e.g., virtual assistants) and personalisation aspects (e.g., allergy alerts). These results show that affordances facilitate the relationship between user skills, system capabilities and the environment that help customers achieve their imagined and perceived goals. Research limitations/implications (limit 100 words) A major limitation of this study is that it focuses solely on one type of physical retail environment, examining the affordances of Scan & Go (S&G) apps within supermarkets. Although, this facilitated a rich probing of affordances in a single context, it limits the generalizability of findings across retail contexts. Practical implications (limit 100 words) The model that is introduced illuminates a triangulated cycle of intersecting affordances, where perceived affordances manifest through the interplay of customer perceptions and systemic artefact capabilities. Within this model, imagined affordances are shaped through customers’ anticipations within their surrounding environmental design. Finally, ctualised affordances materialise as part of customers’ experiential encounters and user abilities to achieve their goals via in-store technologies like Scan and Go. Originality/value (limit 100 words) This research contributes a triadic affordance structure (perceived, imagined, and actualised affordances) relevant to in-store settings. It illustrates how user capabilities, environmental signifiers and system artefacts interact to influence customers’ goal attainment through Scan & Go technologies.