How to strategically choose or combine augmented and virtual reality for improved online experiential retailing

Abstract

Despite the promise of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to help experiential retailers align online and offline experiences, guidance on choosing or combining these technologies is lacking. In three experiments, we address this research gap by investigating the individual and combined impact of AR and VR on key marketing objectives. First, we establish that AR is more effective in stimulating purchase intentions than VR, due to its ability to support customers in fluent product‐focused mental imagery. Second, we demonstrate that VR is better suited for improving brand attitudes than AR, as it helps customers to form fluent context‐focused mental imagery. Third, we show that AR and VR, in combination, can improve both purchase intentions and brand attitudes, but only when the order of deployment is sequenced as AR then VR. This is due to greater alignment with the customer's online‐to‐offline journey in experiential retail. When deployed the other way around, we observe a detrimental impact on purchase intentions and a potential harmful impact on brand attitudes. Our research offers a nuanced theoretical perspective of AR and VR in marketing and provides experiential retailers with evidence‐based guidelines for leveraging AR and VR within their online retailing strategy.

Beyond the gimmick: How affective responses drive brand attitudes and intentions in augmented reality marketing

“…Moreover, we randomly assigned respondents to the AR versus Non‐AR context, without screening out respondents with a low purchase interest in the corresponding product category. By doing so, we followed the standards in the AR marketing literature (e.g., Hilken et al, 2021; Kowalczuk et al, 2021, Smink et al, 2020). Including some respondents with no real purchase interest might have led to some sort of “noise” in the data.…”

Bridging Imagination Gaps on the Path to Purchase with Augmented Reality: Field and Experimental Evidence

“…We account for up-selling (rather than a full bundle purchase) in our analysis, but more research is needed to fully establish these nuances. In this context, continued study should also formally contrast AR's purchase impact across different purchase funnel stages as well as different journey types (e.g., offline-to-online; multiple touchpoints; Herhausen et al 2019;Hilken et al 2022).…”

Augmented reality filters on social media. Analyzing the drivers of playability based on uses and gratifications theory

“…AR filters are increasingly implemented by brands and social networks (SNs) to sensory enrich and offer novel user experiences (Cowan et al, 2021). Previous research has focused mainly on examining AR filters as shopping tools (Hilken et al, 2017(Hilken et al, , 2021Javornik, 2016a;Mishra et al, 2021;Scholz & Duffy, 2018;Smink et al, 2019). However, AR filters can have purposes beyond shopping.…”