Retailers worldwide are opening checkout-free stores that track purchases via technology and eliminate the need to pay at a register (e.g., Amazon Go). Checkout-free shopping promises retailers to save on labor costs, and consumers to enhance the shopping experience [1], but there is little research on its psychological impact [initial work: 2; 3; 4; 5]. One important psychological concept that is currently overlooked is payment transparency, i.e., the salience of giving up financial resources when paying [6]. In this dissertation project, I propose that payment transparency is reduced in a checkout-free store as no physical payment process is involved. I further propose that reduced payment transparency leads to less exact memory for prices and the impression of more favorable prices in the store. In an incentivized laboratory experiment (N = 150), I investigated whether checkout-free shopping decreases payment transparency, which then decreases recall accuracy of expenditures and leads to a more favorable price perception. Participants were randomly assigned to shop either in a conventional or a checkout-free mock-up store. They had to select 3 out of 15 products. After the payment process, they had to recall the prices and complete items on price perception and payment transparency. The results confirm that checkout-free shopping reduced payment transparency. Further, checkout-free shopping diminished price recall for purchased products. The effect of checkout-free shopping on the price recall for unpurchased products and the price perception could not be confirmed. These findings are important because an unbiased memory of expenditures is necessary for consumers to monitor their budgets [7; 8]. The insights of this study can be helpful to policymakers to protect consumers from loss of budget control. From a managerial perspective, these findings are relevant as consumers might avoid checkout-free stores altogether to control their spending.

Consumer psychology, checkout-free shopping, price recall, payment transparency

Applied Psychology Around the World | Volume 7, Issue 2