Retailing and technological affordances: understanding the subjective realities of interactive buying through Scan and Go apps

Purpose This study aims to explore how three types of selected technological affordances (perceived affordance, imagined affordance and actualised 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 customers interpret, anticipate and experience S&G apps in an in-store shopping environment. Design/methodology/approach 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 S&G app use, along with focus group discussions. An Triangular Interactive Buying Process Theory was then developed through six steps of systematic thematic analysis. Findings 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 A major limitation of this study is that it focuses solely on one type of physical retail environment, examining the affordances of 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 The Triangular Interactive Buying Process Theory 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 Triangular theory, imagined affordances are shaped through customers’ anticipations within their surrounding environmental design. Finally, actualised affordances materialise as part of customers’ experiential encounters and user abilities to achieve their goals via in-store technologies like S&G. Originality/value 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 S&G technologies.