Try-on experience with augmented reality comforts your decision

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how augmented reality (AR) try-on experiences facilitate consumers’ shopping decision. Focusing on the immersion and psychological ownership, the study investigated how the properties of AR experiences (environmental embedding (EE) and simulated physical control (SPC)) affect decision comfort. Design/methodology/approach This research theoretically and empirically analyzes how each property of AR experiences affects consequential psychological states and then further increases decision comfort by employing an existing AR try-on mobile application. A total of 99 valid responses were used for the partial least square structural equation modeling analysis. One’s prior AR try-on experience was predicted as a moderator and analyzed using SPSS-based PROCESS macro. Findings The results demonstrated that EE and SPC evoke immersion and the feeling of ownership of a virtual product, which increased decision comfort. The moderating effect of one’s prior AR try-on experience showed that the impact of EE and SPC on immersion was attenuated for those with prior experience. Further, immersion mediated the effect of EE but SPC on the feeling of ownership, which corroborated the direct effect of SPC on the feeling of ownership. Practical implications Firms must consider technological and user-experience features that can induce users to perceive high levels of AR characteristics such as EE and SPC. Practitioners should develop realistic content that can correctly place virtual products on users to enhance EE. Including more interactive features is encouraged to provide users with a feeling of control toward the virtual product that directly leads to ownership and positively affects decision making. Further, practitioners need to be cautious about consumers getting used to the new technology; retailers and marketers need to focus on creating new and innovative content to continually engage customers. Originality/value This study adopted EE and SPC to determine how each property of AR experience forms the consequential psychological states, particularly depending on one’s prior experience. Methodologically, the study provided external validity in conducting an experiment by adopting an existing AR mobile application available in the market and employing an objective measure of respondents (e.g. prior AR try-on experience).

A conceptual model for studying the immersive mobile augmented reality application-enhanced experience

“…Thirdly , this study has highlighted the importance of the immersive experience or psychological state engaged in technological devices from a psychological perspective (e.g. Song et al., 2019 ), while other studies have focused on the characteristics of virtual devices in social or technological perspectives. In previous studies ( Flavián et al., 2019b ; Hilken et al., 2018 ), the immersive experience is only applied in education and game contexts in developed countries; there have been few studies investigating the usage of AR apps for marketing purposes.…”

“…This study has some significant contributions. Firstly, previous studies have utilized only one product or an AR app for their research in retail settings (e.g., Song et al., 2019 ; Jessen et al., 2020 ); this study reviews the applications of AR technology in marketing contexts from a number of countries and intends to propose a comprehensive conceptual model for AR apps. Secondly , previous studies have discussed customer experiences through AR features and the motivations of customers using AR apps ( Yim et al., 2017 ; Poushneh, 2018 ; Hsu et al., 2021 ), but few studies have specifically examined the impact of customer traits as personal innovativeness and mental imagery on the immersive experience.…”

“…Researchers have studied customer immersion or the immersive experience in different settings such as tourism (Tsai, 2019;Hudson et al, 2019), education (Radianti et al, 2020), and retailing (Peukert et al, 2019;Song et al, 2019), with its potential dominance for both customers and business firms. From a technological perspective, immersion is utilized to show a level of a device's functionality (Flavi an et al, 2019a) in which augmented reality and virtual reality are immersive and emerging technologies (Suh and Prophet, 2018).…”

“…(2018) – Customer experience (spacial presence, flow, immersion, mental imaging) Media characteristics and Media quality Decision making behavioural intentions and Attitudinal Outcomes A framework on customer behavior towards AR in online retailing Yim and Park (2019) Ray Ban app/website product involvement Media features (perceived interactivity, media irritation, medianovelty) Adoption intention Analyzing the difference between AR &VR Moderating role of body image in consumer responses between AR with traditional website Perannagari and Chakrabarti (2019) Cognitive (flow &value) & affective (attitude)responses Design features (augmentation quality & media characteristics) Behavioral response (BI) A summary of literature by thematic analysis Designing a conceptual framework to explain the decision-making process of retail customers. McLean and Wilson (2019) Amazon, ASOS & IKEA apps Brand engagement (cognition, affection&activation) AR attributes (Interactivity, Vividness, Novelty) Satisfaction with customer experience & Brand use intention Revealing a new set of AR attributes & technology attributes Brand engagement has a positive impact on satisfaction and use intention, analysis moderating role of purpose of use in the model Song et al. (2019) Formex try-on watches Immersion Environmental embedding (EE) and Stimulated physical control (SPC) Decision comfort Immersion was affected by Environmental embedding and Stimulated physical control; explaining mechanism how AR experiences (EE &SPC) induce feeling of ownership, lead to decision comfort, the moderating role of prior AR try-on experience evoke weaker immersion than without prior experience.…”

Impact of Augmented Reality Characteristics on Retail Brand Equity

“…Thus, more cognitive resources are available for building cognitive associations. Song et al [14] found that EE and SPC positively affect customers' decision comfort by evoking customers' perceived immersion. Decision comfort refers to the degree of ease, contentment, and wellbeing one feels when making a specific decision and is a soft-positive emotion [15].…”