Price Personalisation Technology in Retail Stores: Examining the Role of Users' Trust

Companies increasingly implement personalisation technologies, which enable them to tailor marketing instruments, such as pricing, to customers’ preferences. Since previous IS research focused on personalisation technologies in the online context, less is known about users’ behaviour regarding personalisation technologies in physical environments. Further, prior research identified a lack of evidence regarding the effectiveness of such technologies. We address this research gap by conducting a field study in cooperation with a German IT-company and a German discount grocery chain that has implemented Price Personalisation Technologies (PPTs) at selected stores. Results indicate that trust in the retailer and trust in the PPT represent crucial prerequisites to generate positive evaluation and behavioural response among users. By examining the interplay of different trust targets, results show that trust in the retailer is transferable towards trust in the PPT. Further, results of propensity score matching indicate that investments of retailers in PPTs can be beneficial.