AI as a Shopping Companion: Mechanisms Shaping Product Basket and Returns
DETAILS
Call for Papers
AI as a Shopping Companion: Mechanisms Shaping Product Basket and Returns
Journal: International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Submission Opens: 1 May 2026
Submission Deadline: 1 November 2026
Final Acceptance Date: 15 April 2027
The International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management invites conceptual, methodological, qualitative, and quantitative research for a Special Issue examining how AI-powered shopping companions influence consumer decision-making, basket formation, conversion, product returns, and overall retail outcomes.
About the Special Issue
Artificial Intelligence is increasingly becoming an active shopping companion throughout the customer journey—from product discovery and evaluation to basket building, checkout, customer service, and post-purchase returns.
Unlike traditional recommender systems, conversational AI tools powered by language models can act as interactive decision partners. They can engage consumers in dialogue, tailor recommendations dynamically, provide explanations, frame alternatives, and influence how shoppers construct preferences and evaluate uncertainty.
These capabilities create opportunities for retailers to improve personalization and customer decision quality, but they also raise important questions around trust, persuasion, perceived agency, dependency, transparency, fairness, and consumer welfare.
The Special Issue is particularly interested in downstream retail outcomes such as basket conversion, assortment composition, purchase quality, customer satisfaction, regret, overbuying, and product returns.
Key Research Areas
Submissions may address, but are not limited to:
Psychological mechanisms behind AI-supported basket conversion
Informational mechanisms shaping AI-assisted purchases
Trust, perceived agency, and disclosure in conversational AI
AI companions and assortment exploration
Variety seeking, substitution, and product complementarity
Price sensitivity and AI-mediated shopping
Conversational framing and explanation
Tone, memory, and personalization in AI interactions
AI-induced conversion and decision quality
Post-purchase satisfaction and regret
Consumer dependence on AI shopping assistance
AI companions and product returns
Informational mismatch and fit errors
Overbuying and opportunistic purchasing behaviours
Online versus omnichannel AI shopping experiences
Explainability and user control in AI shopping systems
Pro-social nudges and responsible AI design
Digital literacy and consumer vulnerability
Transparency, accountability, and fairness
Governance standards for AI-enabled retail systems
Research Approaches
The Special Issue welcomes a broad range of approaches, including:
Conceptual studies
Methodological contributions
Qualitative research
Quantitative studies
Experimental research
Consumer behaviour studies
Retail analytics and data-driven research
Guest Editors
Francesca Serravalle
Email: francesca.serravalle@unito.it
Charles Hofacker
Email: chofack@wertheim.fsu.edu
Key Dates
Opening Date for Manuscript Submissions: 1 May 2026
Closing Date for Manuscript Submissions: 1 November 2026
Final Acceptance Date: 15 April 2027
Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted through the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management ScholarOne Manuscripts system. Authors should select the appropriate Special Issue title during submission and strictly follow the journal's author guidelines.
Submitted manuscripts must be original and must not have been previously published or be under consideration elsewhere while under review.
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