Consumer behavior with augmented reality in retail : a review and research agenda

Driven by the rapid technological development and adoption of augmented reality (AR) in retail, academic research has grown rapidly. Our purpose is to understand the reasons why consumers use augmented reality in retail and what outcomes retailers can expect. This study presents a systematic literature review and summarizes the current empirical knowledge on consumer behavior with AR in retail. This topic remains scattered between various literature streams showing that the potential of AR to create value for consumers lays in its ability to generate utilitarian and hedonic value, to improve decision-making, and to enhance personalization of the virtual self. Then, this study warns about negative effects of AR usage. The contribution is a systematic literature review and a conceptual framework covering the most important consumer behaviors with AR and their brand-related, transactional, and technology-related outcomes. In addition, this paper adopts a holistic view to propose future research directions and emphasize the need for more research on social augmented reality.peerReviewe

The emperor’s new clothes : self-explorative engagement in virtual try-on service experiences positively impacts brand outcomes

Purpose Virtual try-on (VTO) technology offers an opportunity for fashion and beauty brands to provide enriched self-explorative experiences. The increased popularity of VTOs makes it urgent to understand the drivers and consequences of the exploration of styles in VTO contexts (herein called self-explorative engagement). Notably, little is known about the antecedent and outcomes of the personalized self-explorative experience central to VTOs. This paper aims to fill this knowledge gap. Design/methodology/approach An online quasi-experiment (N = 500) was conducted in the context of fashion and beauty VTOs. Participants were asked to virtually try on sunglasses or lipsticks and subsequently answer a questionnaire measuring the key constructs: self-presence (i.e. physical similarity and identification), self-explorative engagement (i.e. exploration of styles in VTO context), brand cognitive processing and brand attitude. The authors analyze the data with structural equation modeling via maximum likelihood estimation in LISREL. Findings The experience of self-presence during consumers’ use of VTOs in augmented reality environments has a positive effect on self-explorative engagement. Furthermore, a mediation analysis reveals that self-explorative engagement improves brand attitude via brand cognitive processing. The results are confirmed for two popular fashion and beauty brands. Originality/value Grounded in extended self theory, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to show that a realistic VTO experience encourages self-extension via a process starting from the exploration of styles and results in increased brand cognitive processing and more positive brand attitudes. The exploration of styles is enabled by self-presence.peerReviewe

More than skin-deep : The influence of presence dimensions on purchase intentions in augmented reality shopping

Virtual try-on applications use augmented reality to virtually display products on consumers’ faces or bodies. That is, they simulate a believable try-on experience by means of psychological presence, whereby the virtual experience feels real to the consumer. Grounded in social cognitive theory, this study is the first to investigate spatial presence, social presence, and self-presence to clarify the impact of virtual try-ons on consumers’ purchase intentions. We demonstrate that the three dimensions of presence have varying effects on purchase intentions. Furthermore, the different outcomes of the presence dimensions are attributed to the symbolic significance ascribed to body modification consumption. We confirm this effect for two contexts that represent low and high levels of body modification. The findings reveal the roles of (1) spatial presence in the low-level body modification context, (2) self-presence in the high-level body modification context, and (3) social presence across different body modification contexts.peerReviewe