Convenience Stores In Taiwan Research Articles

Development of an Autonomous Robot Replenishment System for Convenience Stores

With the appealing ability of combining both mobility and manipulability, mobile robot manipulators have been applied to factory automation, telemedicine, warehousing, etc. Due to the high density of convenience stores in Taiwan, Asia, and other countries, we make further use of mobile robot manipulators to develop an autonomous replenishment system. The replenishment task for a convenience store poses challenges given its narrow aisles and the occasional presence of customers. It thus demands thorough consideration of the planning, navigation, and control of the robot, in addition to customer safety. Correspondingly, we propose strategies for task and path planning, in addition to control and sensor fusion. Specifically, a new collision-free path planning algorithm (the DWA-PS) that consider both customer safety and comfort is developed, along with replenishment and control strategies that utilize the flexibility of the mobile robot manipulator to raise working efficiency. For the performance evaluation, we apply the proposed system to conduct a series of replenishment experiments, including in a convenience store near our university.

Paving the Way for Digital Transformation: Investigate Customer Experiences of Using Mobile Apps

Background: Mobile apps have become a critical channel for retailers to interact with their customers and digitalize shopping behaviors in the customer journeys. In the transition of digital transformation, convenience stores have launched mobile apps to interact with and particularly collecting data from their customers. It is critical to investigate customer experiences in using mobile apps because it paves the way for successful digital transformation. This paper aims to investigate the customer experiences of convenience stores’ mobile apps from the online reviews. Method: This study proposed a mobile apps quality model as the theoretical framework to empirically test the online reviews of mobile apps. Large volumes of online reviews generated by customers provide important strategic values for business and service design for mobile apps. This paper collected 40,521 online reviews of two leading convenience stores in Taiwan and analyzed with text analysis and qualitative analysis. Results: Applying text analysis and qualitative analysis, this paper identified the critical quality attributes of mobile apps in the convenience stores that need to be improved. In addition, software quality is the major concern that 7-11 Open Point needs to improve, followed by service quality and information quality respectively. Software quality is also the major concern that FamilyMart app needs to improve the customer experiences, followed by service quality and information quality. Moreover, customer dissatisfaction primarily resulted from problems in software quality and information quality. Instead, convenience, ease of use, and practicability of mobile apps lead to customer satisfaction. Conclusion: The results demonstrate that software quality, information quality, and service quality are critical dimensions in affecting customer experiences in using mobile apps. Although different mobile apps may have different priorities of quality attributes that are needed to be improved, these improvements of mobile apps help to enhance customer experiences and accelerate digital transformation of the convenience stores.

Constructing a Sustainable and Dynamic Promotion Model for Fresh Foods Based on a Digital Transformation Framework

The emergence of digital technology has compelled the retail industry to develop innovative and sustainable business models to predict and respond to consumer behavior. However, most enterprises are crippled with doubt, lacking frameworks and methods for moving forward. This study establishes a five-step decision-making framework for digital transformation in the retail industry and verifies it using real data from convenience stores in Taiwan. Data from residential type and cultural and educational type convenience stores, which together account for 75% of all stores, underwent a one-year simulation analysis according to the following three decision models for promotions: the shelf-life extended scrap model (SES), the fixed remaining duration model (FRD), and the dynamic promotion decision model (DPD). The results indicated that the DPD model reduced scrap in residential type stores by 12.88% and increased profit by 15.43%. In cultural and educational stores, the DPD model reduced scrap by 10.78% and increased profit by 7.63%. The implementation of the DPD model in convenience stores can bring additional revenue to operators, and at the same time address the problem of food waste. With the full use of resources, sustainable operation can be turned into a concrete and feasible management decision-making plan.

Evaluate the Consumer Acceptance of AIoT-Based Unmanned Convenience Stores Based on Perceived Risks and Technological Acceptance Models

As the Artificial Intelligence Internet of Things (AIoT)-based unmanned convenience stores stand out in an increasingly challenging market, the consumer experience is more important than ever (CustomerThink, 2018). By employing new technologies, 7-Eleven, a leading chain convenience store in Taiwan, launched X-Store in 2018. While AIoT-based unmanned technology can help solve the problem of manpower shortages in the future, a question arises: will people accept this new technology for shopping? In view of this and based on the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study adds perceived risk as another variable to explore the impact of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and attitudes toward using unmanned technology etc. factors on the purchase intentions of consumers in unattended convenience stores. The study further employs SPSS software for reliability and validity analyses, descriptive statistics, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) in order to explore the causal relationship among the variables herein. The main empirical findings show that consumers’ perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness positively affect consumers’ attitudes toward making purchases in X-Store, and via the moderating effect, perceived usefulness and attitudes toward X-Store consumption impact consumers’ behavioral intention of purchasing products in X-Store. In addition, perceived risk has a significant moderating effect on attitudes toward using X-Store and behavioral intentions. The empirical results also reveal that male consumers have significantly greater perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitudes toward using, and behavioral intentions in comparison with female consumers. Finally, this study presents conclusions and recommendations based on the research results as reference for unattended convenience store operators and follow-up researchers.

Employee satisfaction with mobile payment systems: a case study of convenience stores in Taiwan

In recent years, with the rise of mobile payment systems, retailers in Taiwan have in succession developed their mobile wallets, which have significantly improved the convenience for people in shopping through a handy consumption model. This study identified store employee satisfaction with the operation of mobile payment systems as well as its correlation with personal influence based on the main framework of DeLone and McLean's information system success model and the case of the convenience stores where transactions are frequently conducted. The research results showed a significant positive relationship among system quality, information quality, service quality, satisfaction, and personal influence, and a significant positive relationship between satisfaction and personal information.

Employee satisfaction with mobile payment systems: a case study of convenience stores in Taiwan

In recent years, with the rise of mobile payment systems, retailers in Taiwan have in succession developed their mobile wallets, which have significantly improved the convenience for people in shopping through a handy consumption model. This study identified store employee satisfaction with the operation of mobile payment systems as well as its correlation with personal influence based on the main framework of DeLone and McLean's information system success model and the case of the convenience stores where transactions are frequently conducted. The research results showed a significant positive relationship among system quality, information quality, service quality, satisfaction, and personal influence, and a significant positive relationship between satisfaction and personal information.

Sales Forecasting of Perishable Foods With Multiple Stores and Communities-An Empirical Study of Convenience Stores in Taiwan

Purpose: In recent years, smart retailing has been gradually acknowledged and has slowly impacted countless industries. This study takes smart retailing as the starting point and explores the increased attention on the perishable food (fresh food) market in convenience stores. Remarkable improvements in the general food consumer population in Taiwan and the advent of an aging society with changes in social structure and consumer style are also taken into consideration. As perishable goods (fresh food products) easily spoil, the scrap rate of fresh food in convenience stores has always been a topic of great importance. Design/methodology/approach: Perishable food from well-known convenience store chains in Taiwan is taken as the subject of this study, and sales data of stores in different regions are used to establish sales forecast models for the convenience store chains. The optimal sales forecast model for each store's products was established through a data analysis, and the characteristics and differences of all products are explored to establish decision-making advices for enterprises in ordering perishable food. Multiple stores and perishable foods with two-year sales data of 11 perishable foods in every six stores in different county are adopted to establish the predictive models in this study, including time series, support vector machine (SVM), Lagrangian support vector machine (LSVM), random forest, neural network, generalized linear, and generalized linear mixed models. Findings: Results show that the time series model and SVM have lower prediction error values and better prediction results among all the established sales forecast models. Given the influence of region and population characteristics, varying models are applicable to stores in different regions. Thus, the difficulty of prediction will also vary. Practical implications: Different commodities will have varying levels of prediction difficulty due to dissimilarities in commodity attributes. Convenience stores are generally willing to predict the sales of fresh food through an artificial intelligence model. Different forecasting models should be selected by stores. If one or more forecasting models are used for prediction, the model with a stable forecasting error should be selected for implementation. Originality/value: This research analyzes the products sold in multiple stores and applies different time series and machine learning algorithms to build predictive models. The results show that the most suitable algorithms for stores of products are different. If a convenience store wants to build a predictive model, differentiated models must be established for different stores and commodities.

Borrowing books from a convenience store? An innovative library service

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose an innovative service model regarding the public library’s pilot project in Taiwan – Borrowing Books from Convenience Stores (BBCS). The proposed model presents a comprehensive evaluation of patrons to enhance readers’ intention to adopt this innovative library service.Design/methodology/approachA structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the users of the public library and convenience stores in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.FindingsThe main findings of this study make both theoretical and practical contributions. First, this study explores the library’s extending service to convenience stores, and proposes an integrated BBCS model for the library’s innovative service. Second, the identification of influential factors, such as control influence, social interaction and perceived values of convenience, contributes to a marketing strategy for this innovative service offered by the library. Third, gender differences in some relationships of influential factors on BBCS use intention were identified.Originality/valueAlthough many studies have investigated the adoption of self-service technology, this paper is the very first attempt to explore the use of the innovative library service in convenience stores. Based on several theories, an integrated model for users’ intention to use BBCS is proposed in this study. The authors also recommend various gender-specific strategies of BBCS service.

Paternalistic Leadership and Employees’ Sustained Work Behavior: A Perspective of Playfulness

The frontline employees of the service industry are the first connection between enterprises and consumers. Therefore, their performance often represents the image of the company. This study intended to discuss employees’ sustained work behavior through the perceived organizational climate, from the point of view of direct supervisors’ leadership. Employees of chain convenience stores in Taiwan were used as the research samples for the questionnaire survey. A total of 473 valid questionnaires were considered using structural equation analyses. The results showed that authoritarian leadership and employees’ turnover intentions had a significant positive relationship; moreover, there were negative relations between moral leadership, benevolent leadership, and employees’ turnover intention. Thus, employees’ perceived playfulness can decrease turnover intention when under paternalistic leadership. This study provides valuable insights for managers to understand the work value of playfulness.

The Influence of Technology Readiness and Interactivity on Consumers Behavior

A Multiple Media Kiosk (MMK) not only saves lots of cost for organization, but plays a role in innovating of self-service technology (SST). This research wanted to find factors of improving user intention in MMK by studying MMK in convenience stores in Taiwan, making more innovations in SST will come true in the future. This study used Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to explain the behavior of using MMK, in the meantime, we premised that user experience to the internet service and the acceptance to the application of the new technology could also affect it in the multichannel and multimedia retailing environment. Final, confirming these relations by SEM was our research method in statistic. After analyzing data from Online-survey by AMOS, the results indicated that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (two factors in TAM) were significant influence on the behavior of using MMK, moreover, Technology Readiness also could be antecedent variable to the TAM.

Strategies for the Leftover Food Treatment Process: A Case Study of Convenience Store Deli-Style Food Products in Taiwan

The density of convenience stores in Taiwan is the highest in the world. Among the numerous commodities, the market competition for fresh food products is the fiercest and has become a focus of convenience store operations. Due to the change in Taiwanese lifestyles and consumer acceptance of the dining-out model, the demand and supply of fresh food products in convenience stores continues to increase. To benefit marketing performance, not only do convenience stores carry out promotional activities by reducing the price of products but they constantly innovate the taste and variety of fresh food products. For example, the tide of Taiwanese bento, during which promotions were implemented in the President Chain Store, has changed consumer diet habits; despite the raised price, consumers are still willing to purchase the product. However, convenient, real-time fresh food brought by this convenience store usually causes a massive waste of food. In its manufacturing and production processes, the food production chain ranks among the top three for national greenhouse gases. Whenever a piece of food is wasted, greenhouse gases are produced. Moreover, more resources are consumed to dispose of the wasted foods and garbage, further increasing greenhouse gas emissions and multiplying the carbon footprint. The phenomenon of excessive food waste has become an urgent issue in recent years in Taiwan, which is famous for its convenient food culture and service. In addition, because of Taiwan’s special economic development status, as well as rapid urbanization and family structure change, the ways to jointly affect this special consumption and food culture have become a topic worthy of discussion. Therefore, this research selected cooked food products in convenience stores as the main subject to explore the effect of social status and diet consumption from the perspective of daily social patterns and family structure data. It also examined the dilemma of excessive waste of food, to provide improvement advice as a reference to future relevant social policies and research.

Does Consumer Empathy Influence Consumer Responses to Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility? The Dual Mediation of Moral Identity

The present study examined consumer responses to strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) from the perspectives of consumer moral emotions (empathy) and cognition (moral identity), and investigated charitable activities conducted by convenience stores in Taiwan from theoretical and practical perspectives. The research method involved a comparison between two actual charitable activities conducted by convenience stores, namely “donation platform services” and “cause-related marketing”. A questionnaire was distributed into four regions spanning southern to northern Taiwan by using a convenient sampling method, and 332 valid responses were collected. The present study employed structural equation modelling to verify its hypotheses. In terms of theoretical contributions, the present study constructed two theoretical models and subsequently verified that empathy influences moral identity; this constitutes a major contribution to investigations of the causal relationship between moral emotions and cognitive theory. In practice, the present study recommends that convenience stores implement more cause-related marketing to reduce consumer suspicions that firms are motivated purely by profit and increase consumer trust in firms. Subsequent studies are recommended to conduct in-depth investigations of the underlying causes of moral identity internalization and symbolization generating different responses in consumers, as well as other possible situational variables.

Consumer confusion moderates the inertia–purchase intention relationship

We investigated the moderating effect of consumer confusion on the relationship between inertia and purchase intention. Customers (N = 166) were approached randomly with a request to complete our survey as they finished shopping at a convenience store in Taiwan in August 2014. The results revealed that the purchase intention behavior relied on consumer inertia, which increased when consumers were confused because they were less capable of making rational buying decisions when choosing between retailer brands in the marketplace. In a marketing campaign context, our findings show that substantial differentiation is crucial for convenience store chains to strengthen the belief system and behavioral routines of their customers, thereby helping the convenience stores to strengthen their brand image, build consumer trust, achieve a competitive advantage, and capture a greater share of the market in both the short and long term.

Active and Latent Failures in Customer Services and Opportunities for Quality Innovation for Convenience Stores

Due to the characteristics of customer participation and heterogeneity in service operations, the demands and contents of service tasks are usually with great diversity. Therefore it is usually preferred to conduct failure analysis, instead of the rigidly structured questionnaire, for the purpose of assessment and innovation in service quality. Furthermore, rather than conducting the survey to customers directly that seems to comply with the concept of customer orientation, it possesses great advantages in expertise and insights in failure analysis through service personnel surveys. In this study, service failure cases were collected using the Critical Incident Technique through the interviews to the service personnel from various chain convenience stores in Taiwan. These service failure incidents were then analyzed using the active-latent framework proposed in this study. Both active failures and latent failures from these collected incidents are categorized in hierarchical structures. These two failure categorizations were further mapped for providing empirical bases to the opportunities of quality innovation in system design and personnel training/education for this particular service domain. The interpretations and implications of the resulted failure patterns are also discussed.

Investigation and analysis of power consumption in convenience stores in Taiwan

By using a remote energy-conserving monitoring system, this study investigated the power consumption data of 30 convenience stores in northern, central, and southern Taiwan. Data collected comprised the temperature, humidity, and power consumption data of air conditioning, freezer and refrigerator, lighting, and heating equipment. In addition, factors that affected the power consumption of the stores were examined by collecting the basic information of each store, including total floor area, location, sales revenue, and number of customers visited. The results revealed that the average annual energy use intensity in a convenience store in Taiwan was 2346kWh/m2/year, which was significantly higher than those of office buildings and hotels. The power consumption of the four types of investigated convenience stores is arranged in a descending order as follows: convenience stores in commercial areas, residential areas, suburban areas, and strategic road areas. The demand use intensity of food storage equipment (i.e., freezers and refrigerators) was the highest among the investigated types of equipment in the convenience stores, at 88.58W/m2. Therefore, the first priority for improving energy conservation is to replace old and outdated food storage equipment with efficient units. Finally, a power consumption model for convenience stores was formulated through the examined power-consuming factors, and may serve as a reference for forecasting the power consumption of planned convenience stores.

How can social networking sites help build customer loyalty? An empirical investigation

Social networking sites (SNSs) have been viewed as a useful tool that can be utilised to sustain customer loyalty. However, few studies have examined how SNSs can help build customers' loyalty. Building on past literature, this study developed a theoretical model to explain how SNSs can help build customer loyalty. The proposed model was tested empirically using data collected from 221 Facebook users who were customers of a famous convenience store in Taiwan. The results reveal that satisfaction with the vendor and trust in the vendor affect customer loyalty significantly. The results also show that satisfaction with the website has a positive effect on satisfaction with the vendor and trust in the website, which in turn affects trust in the vendor. Finally, the results indicate that utilitarian value, hedonic value, and social value have significant influences on satisfaction with the website, while utilitarian value exerts positive effects on trust in the website. Implications for theory and practice research are discussed.

Mining Customer Knowledge for a Recommendation System in Convenience Stores

Taiwan's rapid economic growth with increasing personal income leads increasing numbers of young unmarried people to eat out, and shopping at convenience stores for food is indispensable to the lives of these people. Thus, it is an essential issue for convenience store owners to know how to accurately market appropriate products and to choose effective endorsers for brands or products in order to attract target consumers. Data mining is a business intelligence analysis approach with great potential to help businesses focus on the most important business information contained in a database. Therefore, this study uses the Apriori algorithm as an association rules approach, and clustering analysis for data mining. The authors divide consumers into three groups by their consumer profiles and then find each group's product preference mixes, product endorsers, and product/brand line extensions for new product development. These are developed as a recommendation system for 7-11 convenience stores in Taiwan.

The Analysis of Vulnerability in Low-Carbon Delivery System Using Analytical Hierarchy Process

Convenience stores in Taiwan have integrated e-commerce systems into their logistics systems to develop a new retail delivery model. Store-to-store delivery service is the one of the retail delivery systems served by FamilyMart.com and 7-11.com. The delivery system is complicated and risky. This paper are explores the structure of logistic for store-to-store delivery service for electronic commerce and develops a hierarchical framework and evaluation model to evaluate the logistics vulnerability of two store-to-store delivery service providers in Taiwan. With the results of the most vulnerable parts in store-to-store delivery system, managers could add resources and formulate strategies to strengthen them and reduce the frequency of the events that have higher failure probabilities.

Determinants and consequences of consumer satisfaction with self‐service technology in a retail setting

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the antecedents and consequences of consumer satisfaction with the use of self‐service technology (SST) in a retail setting.Design/methodology/approachIn cooperation with a survey firm, a total of 424 respondents were collected from among consumers who had experience of using multimedia kiosks at convenience stores in Taiwan. The conceptual model was tested by using structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results show that perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment both, initially, influence perceived control and convenience and then affect consumer satisfaction, which in turn has an impact on consumer continued behavior intention. In addition, perceived enjoyment is found to enhance consumer satisfaction, but perceived usefulness is not.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a conceptual model to synthesize the essence of the ECM‐IT model and two important incentives in self‐service (i.e. perceived control and convenience) in order to provide a theoretical explanation for consumer satisfaction in the self‐service context. This not only extends the ECM‐IT model, but also remedies previous self‐service literature that lacked the theoretical background in investigations of consumer satisfaction.

Building Consumers' Trust Based on Pick-up Goods Behavior in the Convenience Stores in Taiwan

With the adoption of Internet, online shopping has provided a convenience way to purchase goods or services from anywhere at any time in recent years globally. Especially, convenience stores are available for consumers to pick up goods ordered from Internet shops in Taiwan. Therefore, convenience stores have become an important success factor for increasing a lot of profit in online shopping in Taiwan. In the past, researches have indicated that consumers dare not or are not willing to purchase goods in online shopping. The reasons include the problem of security and the lack of consumers’ trust. Thus, these problems constitute a key barrier to the use of online shopping as well as long-term commitment to the relationship building. Therefore, there is a need to build up consumers’ trust in order to overcome the influential factors in online shopping. In this paper, we use statistic analysis method by questionnaires to discuss the characteristics of pick-up goods in the convenience stores and illustrate the relationship between consumers’ trust in online shopping and pick-up goods behavior in convenience stores. In our experiment, questionnaire items are measured by Likert scale. In 227 valid questionnaires, 90% participants deeply believe that pick-up goods in the convenience stores can promote consumers’ trust in online