Kiyaslio: a gamified mobile crowdsourcing application for tracking price dispersion in the grocery retail market

Abstract

Purpose In the recent years, the rapid growth of the grocery retailing industry has created a great heterogeneity in prices across sellers in the market. Online price comparison agents which are key mechanisms to solve this problem by providing prices from different sellers. However, there are many sellers in the grocery industry do not offer online service, and so it is impossible to automatically retrieve price information from such grocery stores. In this manner, crowdsourcing can become an essential source of information by collecting current price data from shoppers. Therefore, this paper aims to propose Kiyaslio, a gamified mobile crowdsourcing application that provides price information of products from different grocery markets. Design/methodology/approach Kiyaslio has been developed through leveraging the power of crowdsourcing technology. Game elements have also been used to increase the willingness of users to contribute on price data entries. The proposed application is implemented using design science methodology, and it has been evaluated through usability testing by two well-known techniques which are the system usability scale and the net promoter score. Findings The results of the usability tests indicate that participants find Kiyaslio as functional, useful and easy to use. These findings prove its applicability and user acceptability. Practical implications The proposed platform supports crowd sourced data collection and could be effectively used as a tool to support shoppers to easily access current market product prices. Originality/value This paper presents a mobile application platform for tracking current prices in the grocery retail market whose strength is based on the crowdsourcing concept and incorporation of game elements.