• by Gavin O'Malley , September 11, 2017

Think millennials are ready for the robot revolution?

On the contrary, consumers ages 18-to-35 value human sales clerks more than any other demographic, new research suggests. Among millennials, 66% consider the importance of a living, breathing clerk’s presence during store visits to be “extremely important.”

Remarkably, that is a greater share than the 54% of consumers ages 36-to-51 who said a clerk’s company was extremely important, and 49% of those ages 52-to-70 who shared their sentiment.

The findings come courtesy of smartphone-charging station provider ChargeItSpot, which surveyed some 600 shoppers at malls across the country.

Across demographics, 63% of U.S. shoppers see store associates as extremely important -- with an additional 28% saying that store associates are “somewhat important.”

It is not surprising, then, that so many shoppers said they are unready for bots to replace people in retail setting.  

Overall, 43% of consumers say they wouldn’t presently shop at a store with bots, while 27% said they would, and 30% remained on the fence.

Hardly science fiction, major U.S. retailers are already making the switch to bots, while others are seriously weighing to option,

“Amazon is already testing the cashier-less checkout process in their Amazon Go location,” Douglas Baldasare, CEO and founder of ChargeItSpot, states.

More broadly, “we are seeing more technology being integrated into the in-store experience,” according to Baldasare.