From Metrics to Meaning: Insights from a Mixed-Methods Field Experiment on Retail Robot Deployment

2026-01-05

arXiv.org

AI Summary

This study investigates the impact of service robots on customer behavior and staff interactions in a real-world retail setting, with a focus on key service metrics such as store entry conversion rates. Over a 12-day field experiment in a bedding store, three conditions—no robot, robot-only, and robot with a fixed installation—were alternately deployed. Employing an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, the research integrates video-based behavioral annotation, service funnel quantification, and semi-structured employee interviews. Findings reveal that the robot significantly increases pedestrian stopping rates—especially when paired with a fixed installation—but concurrently suppresses staff engagement, store entry, and purchase conversion, uncovering a paradoxical “demand closure at the doorway” mechanism. The study concludes with actionable deployment strategies for service robots, offering both theoretical insights and practical guidance for high-touch service environments.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Human-Robot Interaction
• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience

Abstract

We report a mixed-methods field experiment of a conversational service robot deployed under everyday staffing discretion in a live bedding store. Over 12 days we alternated three conditions--Baseline (no robot), Robot-only, and Robot+Fixture--and video-annotated the service funnel from passersby to purchase. An explanatory sequential design then used six post-experiment staff interviews to interpret the quantitative patterns. Quantitatively, the robot increased stopping per passerby (highest with the fixture), yet clerk-led downstream steps per stopper--clerk approach, store entry, assisted experience, and purchase--decreased. Interviews explained this divergence: clerks avoided interrupting ongoing robot-customer talk, struggled with ambiguous timing amid conversational latency, and noted child-centered attraction that often satisfied curiosity at the doorway. The fixture amplified visibility but also anchored encounters at the threshold, creating a well-defined micro-space where needs could ``close''without moving inside. We synthesize these strands into an integrative account from the initial show of interest on the part of a customer to their entering the store and derive actionable guidance. The results advance the understanding of interactions between customers, staff members, and the robot and offer practical recommendations for deploying service robots in high-touch retail.

Problem

• service robot
• retail
• human-robot interaction
• customer behavior
• staff discretion

Innovation

• service robot
• mixed-methods field experiment
• retail human-robot interaction
• conversational latency
• customer journey funnel