In-store technology personalization: A typology and research agenda based on type of automation and data collection

Smart retail leverages novel intelligent technologies that can sense, connect, and interact with customers to apply personalization tactics widely available in online shopping to offline settings. Retailers rely on such technologies to provide customers with personalized messages. The increasing autonomy of the technologies delivering the personalization and the data collection upon which this personalization is based and produce different manifestations of personalization in smart retail. To establish a foundation for research and practice involving these different manifestations, this article proposes a 2 (autonomy of technology: autonomous vs. employee-guiding) × 2 (type of data collection: explicit vs. implicit) in-store personalization-technology typology. Building on this typology, the authors analyze real-world manifestations and thereby establish the state-of-the-art of in-store personalization practices for smart retail. By comparing current knowledge in academic research with the status quo of managerial practice, this article advances an agenda for further research into personalization in smart retail.