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.
Millennial clerks are probably the #1 reason that older generations would prefer bots. :)
And bots programmed by older generations are probably the #1 reason that millennials prefer clerks. :)
And bots were, in the main, dismissed by the older generations of programmers because of the sub-standard UX.