CHECKOUT APRIL 2018
Make a Comfortable Waiting Area
Problem of Fashion Retailers
Hong Kong
IMPROVE Customers
Queuing Problem
Lau Lok Yi N0776463 177281160 FASH30006 Fashion Concepts and Innovation Project
Fig 1. Fashion store cashier
1
Nottingham Trent University School of Art & Design Hong Kong Design Institute
ba
ifb
2017 / 2018
Module: Fashion Concepts & Innovation Project Module reference: FASH30006
IVE
Module Leader: Cassandra NG
Module Name Declaration This submission is the result of my own work. All help and advice other than that received from tutors has been acknowledged and primary and secondary sources of information have been properly attributed. Should this statement prove to be untrue, I recognise the right and duty of the Board of Examiners to recommend what action should be taken in line with the University’s regulation on assessment contained in its handbook. I confirm that this work has gained ethical approval and that I have faithfully observed the terms of the approval in the conduct of this project.
Signed ……………………………………………………………… (Full Name) ……………Lau Lok Yi……………… Date …………………………25-1-18………………………………… (Word Count: __1388 WORDS___)
Fig 2. Shadow of queuing
01 Introduction 02 Purpose and Aims 03 Primary Literature Review 04 Proposed Research Methodology
CON TENTS 05 Expected Outcomes 06 Work Plan 07 References 08 Photo References 09 Bibliography
INTRO DUCT ION P.1
A
s Soman and Zhou (2003) states, "Queues are a ubiquitous phenomenon." This phenomenon also appears in Hong Kong. One obvious example is that customers waiting for checkout. Fig 3. ZARA
There are many fast fashion brands in Hong Kong such as Zara and UNIQLO etc. In the weekend or promotional activities, the queues of cashier would be very long.
Fig 4. Causeway Bay Uniqlo
One customer purchases a lot of products that the checkout times would be longer. If some customer buys one item only, they would give up to purchase eventually because of the too long waiting times and feel impatient. (Janakiraman et al., 2011) According to Kallรณ and Koltai (2010), "waiting has the great impact on service level and customer satisfaction."
Fig 5. H&M
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F
or the fast fashion brands, most of the consumers require their products and services would be "Bang for the buck".
However, according to Adan and Resing (2001), "[Customers] do not like to wait".
Checkout is the last part of the shopping and the queuing for payment is inevitable.
Fig 6. H&M checkout
Thus, one poor shopping experience would make the customers never come back. As waiting for the checkout service would affect the customer satisfaction of overall shopping experience. So understanding the checkout experience of the customer to make the checkout process be efficient and enhance the customer satisfaction as well as loyalty with the brand is the focal point in this study.
Waiting will trigger the consumer’s negative emotions and affect the satisfaction in purchasing, thereby affecting the willingness of the same brand to spend the next time (van Riel et al., 2012). Sultana and Islam (2012) pointed out that customer satisfaction is an important issue.
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PURPOSE & AIMS
T
he purpose of this project is to investigate the checkout experience of the fast fashion customers, identify the problem of checkout and improve the customer satisfaction. The project goal is to formulate the new checkout process and system for the fast fashion retail.
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PRIMARY T
he literature review would focus on the important theories related to this study such as queuing psychology of consumer and the payment choice and further explores the relationship between there literature and the improvement of checkout experience.
CONSUMERS PSYCHOLOGY OF QUEUING
3.1
A
s Adan and Resing (2001) states, "[Customers] do not like to wait". However, no matter what you are waiting for, such as bus and checkout for shopping, you need to queue. Therefore, queuing is inevitable. But queuing for the service would aect the consumer psychology.
Fig 7. Waiting Bus in Hong Kong
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LITERATURE REVIEW I
Also, some customers would feel impatient and give up to purchase eventually because of the too long waiting time (Janakiraman et al., 2011).
f consumers wait for a long time, they would have negative emotions, which will affect the satisfaction in purchasing, and affect their willingness of next spending (van Riel et al., 2012).
This would influence customers' satisfaction with the overall service and even the brand. The consumers" satisfaction with a shopping trip would be influenced by spending the time waiting in a queue (Meert, K., et al., 2011).
Fig 8. Customer satisfaction element
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Kalló and Koltai (2010) observed that "waiting has the great impact on service level and customer satisfaction."
PRIMARY A
However, customers selected "eďŹƒciency" and "courteous" as the most important attributes of customer service, the result is the highest in all countries. It seems that Hong Kong consumers are willing to wait but it also needs speed.
ccording to American Express Hong Kong (as cited in HongKong Business, 2017), 17 minutes is the maximum time that Hong Kong customer willing to wait and gain the help of customer service representative in the store when they are available.
Besides, Hong Kong customers would share their poor customer service experiences with others. Nearly half (44%) of respondents frequently share the poor service experiences, compared with only 19% shared a good experience. For the average, Hong Kong customers would share their poor customer service experience to 18 people but share their excellent experience with 6 people only. Therefore, businesses must continue to provide the quality customer service to avoid rapid deterioration of the company's reputation by an unpleasant customer experience. Fig 9. American Express Customer Service Barometer 2017 (HK)
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LITERATURE REVIEW C
onsumers are willing to wait. However, if the waiting time is too long that would aect the psychology of consumers. Thence, a poor shopping experience even one part, would make the customers never come back. That would cause the brand losing their customer, reducing the sales and maybe deteriorating of the company's reputation. Therefore, we need to understand the feeling of the customer and base on it to improve the customer satisfaction of waiting the checkout service.
3.2
TIME PERCEPTION
W
hen consumers wait for the service, their time perception may be aected. Fig 10. Time perception
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PRIMARY T
he waiting time is subjective in the way customers perceive the results of capacity management (Jones and Hwang, 2005). According to Cameron (as et al., 2017), waiting time is subjective which is oppoobjective time Therefore, value the pertion of waiting real time.
Baker and cited in Chou the length of of consumer perception, site with lapse. consumers sonal perceptime, not the
Jones and Hwang (2005) explained that the actual waiting time, which is different with the perceived waiting time, is also related to the customer's satisfaction with the waiting experience. According to Weinberg (as cited in Jones and Hwang, 2005), "perceptions of waiting time can be more important to consumers’ subjective evaluations of quality and customer satisfaction." Therefore, when the consumer subjectively think that the waiting time is too long, they would feel impatient aect their satisfaction of service and may leave. Fig 11. Psychological time & objective time
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LITERATURE REVIEW S
ome studies have pointed out that consumers' subjective perception of time may be aected by other factors such as scent, music and TV screens in the store (Areni and Grantham, 2009) (Morrin, Chebat and Gelinas-Chebat, 2010) (Borges, Herter and Chebat, 2015). Base on those researches, we could understand their time perception and improve the queuing experience from the lens of the customer.
3.3 Fig 12. Electronic payment methods
PAYMENT METHOD
P
ayment method is one factor would inuence the customer checkout time. Nowadays, Hong Kong customers can pay by cash, credit card, Octopus card and EPS (Debit card) etc. In addition to cash, the others belong to the electronic payment. Credit cards possess other payment methods such as Paywave and Apple pay.
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PRIMARY A
The following ďŹ gure shows that the payments made by the consumer in 2012, consumers made an average of 36.4 payments using payment cards (or 52.8% of total payments) and 30% were made by debit card.
lthough electronic payments such as mobile payments are evolving, cash is still the preferred method of payment, with a high usage rate, the followed by payment cards. According to Schuh and Stavins (2015), from 2010 to 2012, the cash payments by consumers fell down by 10%. About the credit and charge card payments by consumers which decreased in 2009 and now rebounded, rising by 14% from 2010 to 2012. Moreover, in 2012, there were 36% consumers used mobile banking and 18% made a mobile payment.
Cash was accounting for 27% of total payments. Debit cards and cash continued to be the most popular among consumers. The next most popular payments instruments were credit cards and checks.
Fig 13. Payments by Instrument Type
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LITERATURE REVIEW F
urthermore, according to HKMA (as cited in Leung, 2018), the electronic payment transactions accounted for over 60% of private consumption expenditure.
Fig 14. Amazon GO
Electronic Payment are evolving in global such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Alipay etc. All of these electronic payment systems also want to make the payments easier and faster.
If Hong Kong e-payments develop completely and possess a complete system. Would the shopping experience be new and fast, same as Amazon GO? Is there any concern about the e-payment development? Does it work for the Hong Kong fast fashion market? Those of them we need to research. P.12
PROPOSED RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
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R Also, to understand the checkout experience of fast fashion retailer, the two fast fashion brands would be observed.
esearch more journals and the white paper, to understand the consumers behavioral and psychology when they are queuing.
Furthermore, to ďŹ nd out Hong Kong consumer behavior and their checkout experience. The questionnaire surveys would be conducted online and oine. The limitation of the online surveys is we do not know the real age of respondents. The focus group may also conduct. The research outcome would more complete.
The main target of questionnaire surveys is the younger about 30 people around 20-35 of fast fashion customer.
Fig 15. Questionnaire
The focus group would be the Hong Kong consumer in 20-25.
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EXPECTED OUTCOMES
T
he signiďŹ cance of the research is to understand Hong Kong customer queuing psychology to improve the shopping experience and satisfaction of brand, also enhance the sales of the brand.
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The expected development is getting primary research and analysis the outcome. Also, think about the ideas which in dierent formats to improve consumer checkout experience for the fast fashion retail.
WORK PLAN T
o find out more secondary research such as white paper before March. The primary research includes observation, the questionnaire would finish around 20th of February. Focus group may arrange on or before 23th of February. Review and analysis the result may be on 1st of March. After stage 2, the outcome and the recommendation would be considered base on the own findings. Made the ideas clearer and visualization, make it realization and solve the problem. Those of them would finish before 20th of April.
Fig 16. Calendar
(1388 words)
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Soman, D. and Zhou, R., 2003. Looking Back: Exploring the Psychology of Queuing and the Eect of the Number of People Behind. Journal of Consumer Research [Online]. Volume 29, Issue 4, p.517-530. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/29/4/517/1791026 [Accessed 20 January 2018]. Janakiraman, N., Meyer, R.J. and Hoch, S.J., 2011. The Psychology of Decisions to Abandon Waits for Service. Journal of Marketing Research [Online]. Volume 48, No. 6, p.970-984. Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5417/86370b43d6dcccfa99c9137f1c8c4a595293.pdf [Accessed 20 January 2018]. Kalló, N. and Koltai, T., 2010. Increasing Customer Satisfaction in Queuing Systems with Rapid Modelling. Rapid Modelling and Quick Response [Online]. p.119-130. Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-84996-525-5_9#citeas [Accessed 20 January 2018]. Adan, I. and Resing, J., 2001. Queueing Theory [Online]. Available at: http://wwwhome.math.utwente.nl/~scheinhardtwrw/queueingdictaat.pdf [Accessed 20 January 2018]. van Riel, A., et al, 2012. Waiting for service at the checkout: Negative emotional responses, store image and overall satisfaction. Journal of Service Management 23(2) [Online]. p.144-169. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233386861_Waiting_for_service_at_the_checkout_Negative_emotional_responses_store_image_and_overa ll_satisfaction [Accessed 20 January 2018]. Sultana, M. and Islam, M.M.N., 2012. Impact of Queue on Customers: An Analysis of Some Retail Shops in Bangladesh. East West University Journals [Online]. Volume 3, No. 1, p.95-108. Available at: http://dspace.ewubd.edu/handle/123456789/394 [Accessed 20 January 2018]. Meert, K., Pandelaere, M., and Van Kenhove, P., 2011. Prominence in queuing: queue length versus basket size. Society for Consumer Psychology 2011 Winter Conference, Proceedings [Online]. Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP). Available at: https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/2060152 [Accessed 20 January 2018]. HongKongBusiness, 2017. Hong Kong consumers' satisfaction levels hit three-year low. [Online]. Available at: http://hongkongbusiness.hk/retail/news/hong-kong-consumers-satisfaction-levels-hit-three-year-low [Accessed 20 January 2018].
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REFERENCE Jones, P. and Hwang, J.L., 2005. Perceptions of waiting time in different service queues. [Online] Available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/2205/ [Accessed 20 January 2018]. Chou, C.H., Han, Y.M., Chiou, J.T. and Farn, C.K., 2017. The Influences of Mobile Queuing Service on Consumers' Queuing Psychology. Journal of e-Business, [Online]. Volume 19, No. 2, p.205-238. Available at: http://jeb.cerps.org.tw/files/JEB2017-008.pdf [Accessed 20 January 2018]. Areni, C. and Grantham, N., 2009. (Waiting) Time Flies When the Tune Flows: Music Influences Affective Responses to Waiting By Changing the Subjective Experience of Passing Time. NA - Advances in Consumer Research, [Online]. Volume 36, p.449-455. Available at: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/14713/volumes/v36/NA-36 [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Morrin, M., Chebat, J.C. and Gelinas-Chebat, C. 2010. The impact of scent and music on consumer perceptions of time duration. Sensory Marketing: Research on the Sensuality of Products, [Online]. p.123-134. Available at: https://books.google.com.hk/books?hl=zh-TW&lr=&id=qfKOAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA123&dq=related:tQ3oXrlmwroJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=6_E-Ibqt36 &sig=8pPvGkPH7sluYAsqYNd5FdmD6fI&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Borges, A., Herter, M.M. and Chebat, J.C., 2015. “It was not that long!”: The effects of the in-store TV screen content and consumers emotions on consumer waiting perception. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, [Online]. Volume 22, p.96-106. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698914001453 [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Schuh, S.D. and Stavins, J., 2015. The 2011 and 2012 Surveys of Consumer Payment Choice. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Paper Series Research Data Reports No. 14-1, [Online]. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2564165 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2564165 [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Leung. 2018. 財經評論：電子支付的大敵. [Online]. Available at: https://hk.finance.appledaily.com/finance/daily/article/20180111/20271313. [Accessed 21 January 2018].
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Fig 1. Sacha Storto, 2018, Fashion store cashier [digital image]. Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/298574650277335892/ [Accessed 14 March 2018]. Fig 2. Guy Moates, 2012, Shadow of queuing [digital image]. Available at: https://www.cadesignservices.co.uk/retail-design/ [Accessed 13 March 2018]. Fig 3. Adige, 2018, ZARA [digital image]. Available at: http://www.ladige.it/popular/tecnologie/2018/03/06/zara-robot-shopping-velocizzeranno-ritiro-pacchi [Accessed 13 March 2018]. Fig 4. Yung, 2016, Causeway Bay Uniqlo [digital image]. Available at: https://hk.lifestyle.appledaily.com/lifestyle/realtime/article/20160124/54684300 [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Fig 5. Saigoneer, 2017, H&M [digital image]. Available at: https://saigoneer.com/vietnam-news/10314-h-m-s-ďŹ rst-store-in-vietnam-to-open-in-saigon-this-autumn1 [Accessed 13 March 2018]. Fig 6. Patty Hastings, 2016, H&M checkout [digital image]. Available at: http://www.columbian.com/news/2016/sep/15/valkommen-hm/ [Accessed 14 March 2018]. Fig 7. Chan, 2016, Waiting Bus in Hong Kong [digital image]. Available at: http://www.hkcd.com/content/2016-08/02/content_1010760.html [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Fig 8. Linda Marholin, 2018, Customer satisfaction element [digital image]. Available at: http://qinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/491731875.jpg [Accessed 14 March 2018]. Fig 9. Topick, 2017, American Express Customer Service Barometer 2017(HK) [digital image]. Available at: https://topick.hket.com/article/1769403/%E7%BE%8E%E5%9C%8B%E9%81%8B%E9%80%9A%EF%BC%9A%E6%B 8%AF%E6%B6%88%E8%B2%BB%E8%80%85%E6%BB%BF%E6%84%8F%E5%BA%A63 %E5%B9%B4%E6%96%B0%E4%BD%8E [Accessed 14 March 2018].
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PHOTO REFERENCE Fig 10. Alice McGurran, 2014, Time perception [digital image]. Available at: https://welldoing.org/article/time-perception [Accessed 14 March 2018]. Fig 11. Denys, 2015, Psychological time & objective time [digital image]. Available at: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/09/why-performance-matters-the-perception-of-time/ [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Fig 12. Spectratech, 2018, Electronic payment methods [digital image]. Available at: http://www.spectratech.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=44 [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Fig 13. Scott Schuh and Joanna Stavins, 2012, Payments by Instrument Type [digital image]. Available at: https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=433000088031098029110102072095017124028072042008084011092124087113 08402310809808100509800303203501811603308010910412402308308310608001203903308 10661011240690001270070520280130840981030820700801040950750760710220031070300 79068003126099094066096087002070&EXT=pdf [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Fig 14. Amazon, 2018, Amazon GO [digital image]. Available at: http://www.storm.mg/lifestyle/388625 [Accessed 15 March 2018]. Fig 15. Alexa Smahl, 2012, Questionnaire [digital image]. Available at: https://classroom.synonym.com/administer-questionnaire-8439458.html [Accessed 22 January 2018]. Fig 16. 588ku, 2018, Calendar [digital image]. Available at: http://588ku.com/sucai/9107490.html [Accessed 15 March 2018].
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Adan, I. and Resing, J., 2001. Queueing Theory [Online]. Available at: http://wwwhome.math.utwente.nl/~scheinhardtwrw/queueingdictaat.pdf [Accessed 20 January 2018]. Areni, C. and Grantham, N., 2009. (Waiting) Time Flies When the Tune Flows: Music Influences Affective Responses to Waiting By Changing the Subjective Experience of Passing Time. NA - Advances in Consumer Research, [Online]. Volume 36, p.449-455. Available at: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/14713/volumes/v36/NA-36 [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Borges, A., Herter, M.M. and Chebat, J.C., 2015. “It was not that long!”: The effects of the in-store TV screen content and consumers emotions on consumer waiting perception. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, [Online]. Volume 22, p.96-106. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698914001453 [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Chou, C.H., Han, Y.M., Chiou, J.T. and Farn, C.K., 2017. The Influences of Mobile Queuing Service on Consumers' Queuing Psychology. Journal of e-Business, [Online]. Volume 19, No. 2, p.205-238. Available at: http://jeb.cerps.org.tw/files/JEB2017-008.pdf [Accessed 20 January 2018]. Foster, K., et al., 2011. The 2009 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice [Online]. FRB of Boston Public Policy Discussion Paper No. 11-1. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1864854 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1864854 [Accessed 20 January 2018]. HongKongBusiness, 2017. Hong Kong consumers' satisfaction levels hit three-year low. [Online]. Available at: http://hongkongbusiness.hk/retail/news/hong-kong-consumers-satisfaction-levels-hit-three-year-low [Accessed 20 January 2018]. https://books.google.com.hk/books?hl=zh-TW&lr=&id=qfKOAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA123&dq=related:tQ3oXrlmwroJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=6_E-Ibqt36&sig= 8pPvGkPH7sluYAsqYNd5FdmD6fI&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Janakiraman, N., Meyer, R.J. and Hoch, S.J., 2011. The Psychology of Decisions to Abandon Waits for Service. Journal of Marketing Research [Online]. Volume 48, No. 6, p.970-984. Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5417/86370b43d6dcccfa99c9137f1c8c4a595293.pdf [Accessed 20 January 2018].
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Jones, P. and Hwang, J.L., 2005. Perceptions of waiting time in different service queues. [Online] Available at: http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/2205/ [Accessed 20 January 2018]. Kalló, N. and Koltai, T., 2010. Increasing Customer Satisfaction in Queuing Systems with Rapid Modelling. Rapid Modelling and Quick Response [Online]. p.119-130. Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-84996-525-5_9#citeas [Accessed 20 January 2018]. Leng, H.K. and Wee, K.N.L., 2015. An examination of users and non-users of self-checkout counters. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, [Online]. Volume 27, Issue 1, p.94-108. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09593969.2016.1221842 [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Leung. 2018. 財經評論：電子支付的大敵. [Online]. Available at: https://hk.finance.appledaily.com/finance/daily/article/20180111/20271313. [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Meert, K., Pandelaere, M., and Van Kenhove, P., 2011. Prominence in queuing: queue length versus basket size. Society for Consumer Psychology 2011 Winter Conference, Proceedings [Online]. Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP). Available at: https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/2060152 [Accessed 20 January 2018]. Morrin, M., Chebat, J.C. and Gelinas-Chebat, C. 2010. The impact of scent and music on consumer perceptions of time duration. Sensory Marketing: Research on the Sensuality of Products, [Online]. p.123-134. Available at: Orel, F.D. and Kara, A., 2014. Supermarket self-checkout service quality, customer satisfaction, and loyalty: Empirical evidence from an emerging market. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, [Online]. Volume 21, Issue 2, p.118-129. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698913000829 [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Schuh, S.D. and Stavins, J., 2015. The 2011 and 2012 Surveys of Consumer Payment Choice. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Research Paper Series Research Data Reports No. 14-1, [Online]. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2564165 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2564165 [Accessed 21 January 2018]. Soman, D. and Zhou, R., 2003. Looking Back: Exploring the Psychology of Queuing and the Effect of the Number of People Behind. Journal of Consumer Research [Online]. Volume 29, Issue 4, p.517-530. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/29/4/517/1791026 [Accessed 20 January 2018].
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Thank You
IMPROVE the (queuing for) checkout experience for Hong Kong fast fashion customer
Lau Lok Yi BA (Hons) International Fashion Business Nottingham Trent University 2018 -1-
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