Smart technologies and shopping experience: Are gamification interfaces effective? The case of the Smartstore

The emergence of smart technologies is increasingly catching the attention of researchers and practitioners, especially in retailing contexts. However, empirical studies investigating the impact of technologies' design on customers' shopping experience remain limited. In response to this gap, this research analyzes the impact of gamification mechanics, a widely used tool to design smart technologies, on customers' experience, emotions and the resulting behavioral intentions. Therefore, we first examine the impact of two gamification mechanics, challenge and fantasy, on customer experience and patronage intentions. Then, we specifically study the case of the Smartstore, a smart innovative technology used to personalize items in retailing contexts and combining these two gamification mechanics in comparison with a classical interface without any gamification mechanics. Based on those two experimental studies, our findings confirm that personalizing a product through a gamified interfacemight have a positive impact in termsof experience during the process but also on patronage intentions. Hence this research also shows that solely adding gamification mechanics such as challenge and fantasy in a smart interface is not enough to significantly enhance the quality of the perceived experience.