Digitization in Africa: The Adoption and Use of Self-Service Technology in Retail

Service delivery in the twenty-first generation is evolving into more digital forms expanding the consumers' experience and engaging in new forms of communications to consumers through these digital forms. Despite the initiation of self- service technology being widely accepted by consumers within the retail banking industry, the supermarket retail industry has yet to experience the same form of reception and implementation of the self- service technologies (SST). South Africa, being a developing country, any conventions that lead to the country’s progression should be embraced. Thus, the introduction of SST within retail is assumed to enhance consumer's experiences, these technologies open the prospects to generate possibilities for producing new services and enhancing efficiency.The study aimed at evaluating factors of perception through the employment of a conceptualized framework from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). An understanding of why SSTs in retail have not been widely implemented would respond to the challenges associated with the adoption of SSTs from a consumer’s perspective. The findings, from a questionnaire survey posed, revealed that there is a high expression on the intention of using the technologies should the opportunity presents itself. Most of the participants exhibited a high familiarity with the self-service technologies, online purchasing, and self- check- out services, thus the measure of intent resulted in a high margin