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

TL;DR

This study combines quantitative and qualitative methods to explore how a retail service robot affects customer behavior and staff interactions, revealing nuanced insights into deployment strategies in real-world settings.

Contribution

It provides a mixed-methods analysis of retail robot deployment, highlighting behavioral patterns and practical deployment insights not previously documented.

Findings

Robots increased customer stopping rates, especially with fixtures.

Clerks reduced downstream engagement when robots were present.

Fixtures influenced customer-robot interaction micro-spaces.

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.