I’m my own mannequin: The impact of AR on self-concept

Augmented reality (AR) is becoming an important technology for marketeers. Covid-19 pandemic triggered e-commerce and nowadays virtual try-on apps presents a lot of advantages in relation to physical try-on. These try on apps involve the attention on the ‘self’. This research examines the impact of AR try on apps on consumers self-concept, such as the ideal self-congruence. Through an online survey, consumers are exposed to two of four scenarios: AR app or website experience, and positive review vs negative review. Furthermore, we uncover that low self-esteem consumers presence higher ideal self-congruence when using AR (vs normal website) while high self-esteem consumers experienced lower ideal self-congruence when comparing to low self-esteem. Also, results indicate that ideal self-congruence indeed impacts purchase intention and confidence in fit whereas confidence in fit moderates the relationship between ideal self-congruence and purchase intention. Testimonials diagnosticity are important to consumers responses, they moderate the relation between ideal self-congruence and purchase intention, the higher the diagnosticity of reviews the higher the purchase intention and positive one’s impact positively product attitude. The present dissertation positively contributes to the literature on AR and the self-concept as well as reviews valence.A realidade aumentada (AR) está a tornar-se uma ferramenta cada vez mais importante para os marketeers. As aplicações que permitem experimentar roupa através de AR têm ganho cada vez mais importância, apresentando várias vantagens em relação à experimentação em loja física. Ao usar estas aplicações existe um grande foco na pessoa e no seu autoconceito, como a aparência. Esta dissertação examina o impacto de aplicações que utilizam a realidade aumentada para experimentar produtos, neste caso óculos, no autoconceito, como a congruência com o “eu” ideal. Através de um questionário online, os participantes foram expostos a dois de quatro cenários: aplicação de AR ou experiência no website, e, apresentação de uma review positiva ou negativa. Os resultados demonstram que consumidores com baixa auto-estima apresentam maior congruência com o “eu” ideal ao usar AR (vs website normal) e consumidores de alta auto-estima revelam menor congruência com o “eu” ideal quando comparados a baixa auto-estima. Além disso, os resultados indicam que a congruência com o “eu” ideal afeta a intenção de compra e a confiança no produto, enquanto a confiança no produto modera a relação entre a congruência com o “eu” ideal e a intenção de compra. A diagnosticidade das reviews é importante para as respostas dos consumidores mediando a relação da congruência ideal e intenção de comprar, quanto maior a diagnosticidade das avaliações, maior a intenção de compra sendo ainda revelado que as reviews positivas impactam positivamente a atitude do produto. A presente dissertação contribui positivamente para a literatura relativa aos tópicos de realidade aumentada e autoconceito, bem como para reviews (positivas vs negativas)

DECONSTRUCTING E-COMMERCE PRESENCES - A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND RESEARCH AGENDA

This literature review systematically analyses recent studies on the effective design of e-commerce presences in order to provide a state-of-the-art overview on this important topic. To do so, our review focuses on the level of webshop elements (i.e., the building blocks to design webshops), which we cluster in eight categories (e.g., color usage, music usage, rich media usage), derived from previous website quality frameworks (e.g., SITEQUAL, WebQual) and prior reviews. The basis of our comprehensive literature review are 91 articles grouped into the webshop element categories and additionally analyzed along three key study criteria, namely the applied research methods, theories, and key dependent variables. Based on the findings from this bibliographic analysis, we formulate an agenda for future research avenues to guide researchers in further exploring the field of e-commerce presences and to support practitioners in their decision-making on the implementation of webshop elements

The Influence of Message and Audio Modalities in Augmented Reality Mobile Advertisements on Consumers\u27 Purchase Intention

Evidence shows that augmented reality (AR) technology is an effective advertising approach to raise a brand’s awareness, so many big brands implement AR into their marketing strategy. However, the effectiveness of AR mobile advertisements on consumers’ purchase intentions remains unclear. To fill this dearth in the literature, this study examined how message and audio modalities of AR mobile advertisements influenced consumers’ purchase intentions by surveying 120 participants in an online experiment. Based on the uses and gratifications perspective, this experiment manipulated the message type (emotional/factual) and audio-verbal appeal (present/absent) of AR advertisements to investigate their impact on consumers’ attitudes towards buying a watch. The results showed that audio-verbal appeal played a salient role in the emotional message to positively influence consumers’ perceived entertaining gratification and intention to buy the watch. However, the audio-verbal factual message negatively influenced consumers’ purchase intention and did not influence their perceived information gratification. Future research should test other multimedia such as images, video, or animations to better understand the interaction effect between AR mobile advertisements and consumers’ purchase intentions

A Conceptual Model for Building the Relationship Between Augmented Reality, Experiential Marketing & Brand Equity

Purpose:   This study aims to build a conceptual model based on the S-O-R (Stimulus-Organism-Response) framework to understand how Augmented Reality influences brand equity. The proposed model is intended to look into the influence of AR attributes like interactivity, vividness, modality, novelty, and media richness on consumers’ experiential values and brand equity in e-commerce.   Theoretical framework: This study developed the conceptual model by following the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) Model  (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974).   Design/methodology/approach: To advance the conceptual and managerial understanding of AR as an experiential marketing tool, this study followed the systematic literature review approach to build the integrated conceptual model.   Findings: Results of the study has developed a conceptual model for studying the application of AR technology as an experiential marketing tool on customer purchasing experience and brand equity in the e-commerce setting.   Research, Practical & Social implications: This study contributes towards the available literature by studying the AR and its various dimensions for building brand equity. This study will not only assist the e-commerce firms in their decision-making process about adopting this technology but also the marketers to develop the effective marketing strategies for consumer experience of AR uses on e-commerce platforms.   Originality/value: This study introduces modality of AR as a media characteristic in its interface in creating seamless user experience in the proposed model

Digital Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents: Problematic Practices and Policy Interventions

Examines trends in digital marketing to youth that uses "immersive" techniques, social media, behavioral profiling, location targeting and mobile marketing, and neuroscience methods. Recommends principles for regulating inappropriate advertising to youth

RECOMMENDATIONS IN AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATIONS – THE EFFECT OF CUSTOMER REVIEWS AND SELLER RECOMMENDATIONS ON PURCHASE INTENTION AND PRODUCT SELECTION

Not only since the launch of Pokémon Go in July 2016, augmented reality (AR) has received a big boost in awareness and popularity. AR-based start-ups have entered the market, and established companies start to offer AR functionalities in their smartphone applications. A new distribution channel in form of augmented commerce has been emerging, although only little is known about optimized design of AR environments due to the limited number of user studies researching the effects of AR usage. This paper’s research objective is to tackle this gap by analysing AR technology in combination with online recommendations, a well-established, ubiquitous design element in today’s e-commerce. We conducted a controlled online experiment with 208 subjects to examine the effects of customer recommendations (CR) and increasingly emerging seller recommendations (SR) in AR applications. Our results demonstrate that CRs in AR applications positively influence the intention to purchase and the selection of products by decreasing a customer’s product fit uncertainty, whereas SRs displayed no significant influence. These insights are the first steps to further understand how AR and online recommendations can be used and have to be implemented to provide customers with novel and accepted sources of value

Millennial Generation and the Mobile Internet Devices in Shopping Activities

The Millennial Generation and the technology revolution using MID’s are changing business interactions with customers. Despite the fact Millennials are purchasing through MID’s and using these devices to support their purchasing decision, in Dominican Republic there is no available data to explain this consumer trend. The purpose of this study is to explore what Millennials value the most in the purchase process using MID’s. For this study a phenomenological interview approach, contrasting two main elements: “Social Management” and “Consumer Empowerment”, using the framework described in “The Meaning of Shopping Experiences Augmented by Mobile Internet Devices” from Brian Spaid and Daniel Flint, was used to collect data. An outcome of this study is the finding that the Millennial Generation spend time sharing and validating information as well as reading reviews through social networks in order to seek other’s opinions which in turn impacts on their purchase decision. Also seeking product information, comparing prices and having control of the purchase decision, make Millennials feel they can trust their shopping experience for value and smart shopping. This consumer trend in the Dominican Republic to use MID’s may change the way companies interact with customers requiring they adapt their businesses model to connect with consumer behaviors and buying patterns of Millennials

Is augmented reality going to bridge the gap between online and physical stores?

The first appearance of Augmented Reality (AR), a technology that mixes the real and virtual world through a device, goes back to 1968. An increasingly impact of digitalization in our society lead to the change of many business models and it has had an impact on retail. Retailers are now experimenting new ways to meet customer needs and expectations to remain competitive in the digital environment. Market pressure lead companies to invest more in technologies such as AR to improve their websites and platforms and work as a differentiation. This thesis seeks to investigate the impact of AR, through different devices, in bridging the gap between online and physical stores, since consumers are not able to experiment a product before buying it online. Through an online survey, it was possible to affirm that AR is a successful strategy to increment online performances even though the willingness to buy strictly online and purchase intention weren't directly affected by AR. Only a product's perceived informativeness increase due to the technology usage. Also, in fashion shopping the smart mirror had the best user acceptance and in furniture shopping the smartphone app took the lead. Thus, AR is able to bridge the gap between online and physical stores, according to the study, and the collected data might help companies to reevaluate their next steps, especially in the fashion and furniture industry, to remain competitive in the digital world.Realidade Aumentada (RA), uma tecnologia que mistura o mundo real com o mundo virtual através de um dispositivo remonta a 1968. O aumento da digitalização na nossa sociedade levou a uma mudança de muitos modelos de negócio no mercado retalhista. Retalhistas estão agora experimentando novas formas de corresponder as necessidades do consumidor para se manterem competitivas no mundo digital. A pressão do mercado tem levado empresas a investir em tecnologias como a RA para melhorar as suas plataformas, como fator diferenciador. A presente tese procura investigar o impacto da realidade aumentada, através de diferentes dispositivos, em diminuir o fosso entre as lojas físicas e "online", uma vez que os consumidores não podem experimentar um produto, numa loja "online", antes de o comprarem. Num questionário "online", foi possível afirmar que a realidade aumentada é uma estratégia de sucesso "online" apesar da propensão de compra estritamente "online" e a intenção de compra não terem sido afetadas pelo uso da realidade aumentada. Apenas a informação percebida do produto aumentou devido ao uso da tecnologia. Além disso, o espelho inteligente teve a melhor aceitação por parte do utilizador na compra de produtos de moda e na compra de mobiliário a aplicação móvel assumiu a liderança. Assim, a RA é capaz de tapar o fosso entre as lojas físicas e "online", de acordo com o estudo, os dados recolhidos poderão ajudar empresas a reavaliar os seus próximos passos, especialmente na indústria de mobiliário e moda, para se manterem competitivas no mundo digital