The role of self-service technology within service retailing
Since the beginning of time, commerce and trading has been at the center of society. As a vital part in the societal mechanism, commerce has evolved along with it. If in the beginning commerce involved an exchange between two people acting as the two parties, nowadays, in the era of technology, goods and services can be bought (or exchanged) without the physical existence of the seller. This is how e-commerce has begun, through the aid of self-service technology.
According to Gable (1985), technology nowadays is changing rapidly. Retailing today is part of an era where top of the line technology is available for all and is developing fast, where companies make billions of dollars annually. The challenges in the retail section have never been greater. Consumption is increasing, despite the current situation of the economy worldwide. Expectations are rising and new market channels bring around new opportunities for retailers. However, with new opportunities comes a higher completion as well.
A self-service technology is an object which allows every customer to interact with a self service software that puts the control into the hands of the customer. And there is no better example for this than the e-commerce mentioned above. The freedom to choose when, where, what, at what price to buy goods or services (think about planning your vacation and using the internet to make airplane, hotel or certain monument reservation) if it is done online through SST gives the consumer the chance to research the products, the seller, all the options by using the available information that has significantly increased over time.
This new, radical evolution represented by SST whose main role is to reduce or replace human to human interpersonal relations can be most definitely be considered one of the most fundamental