IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jouret/v95y2019i4p219-234.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Touching the Untouchable: Exploring Multi-Sensory Augmented Reality in the Context of Online Retailing

Author

Listed:
  • Heller, Jonas
  • Chylinski, Mathew
  • de Ruyter, Ko
  • Mahr, Dominik
  • Keeling, Debbie I.

Abstract

Mental intangibility during product evaluation remains one of the greatest drawbacks for online purchasing. However, emerging multi-sensory Augmented Reality (m-AR) applications offer a potential solution for this online retailing problem. Drawing on active inference theory, this article proposes a conceptual framework to assess how sensory control and feedback modalities affect consumer value judgements by reducing mental intangibility. We show how touch control, compared to voice control, positively affects consumers’ willingness-to-pay. The underlying mechanism is a sequential process of reduced mental intangibility and increased feeling of decision comfort. In addition, we highlight a positive moderating effect of congruent auditory feedback on decision comfort. We also demonstrate a novel consumer boundary condition. Consumers high in assessment orientation experience a stronger reduction in mental intangibility. The results are consistently replicated across three experiments implying theoretical and managerial contributions for m-AR in the context of online retailing.

Suggested Citation

  • Heller, Jonas & Chylinski, Mathew & de Ruyter, Ko & Mahr, Dominik & Keeling, Debbie I., 2019. "Touching the Untouchable: Exploring Multi-Sensory Augmented Reality in the Context of Online Retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 95(4), pages 219-234.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jouret:v:95:y:2019:i:4:p:219-234
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2019.10.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022435919300673
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretai.2019.10.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertil Hultén & Niklas Broweus & Marcus Dijk, 2009. "What is Sensory Marketing?," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Sensory Marketing, chapter 1, pages 1-23, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Grewal, Dhruv & Roggeveen, Anne L. & Nordfält, Jens, 2017. "The Future of Retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 1-6.
    3. Ruyter, Ko de & Isobel Keeling, Debbie & Ngo, Liem Viet, 2018. "When nothing is what it seems: A digital marketing research agenda," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 199-203.
    4. Carrozzi, Amelia & Chylinski, Mathew & Heller, Jonas & Hilken, Tim & Keeling, Debbie I. & de Ruyter, Ko, 2019. "What's Mine Is a Hologram? How Shared Augmented Reality Augments Psychological Ownership," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 71-88.
    5. Poushneh, Atieh & Vasquez-Parraga, Arturo Z., 2017. "Discernible impact of augmented reality on retail customer's experience, satisfaction and willingness to buy," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 229-234.
    6. Nepomuceno, Marcelo Vinhal & Laroche, Michel & Richard, Marie-Odile, 2014. "How to reduce perceived risk when buying online: The interactions between intangibility, product knowledge, brand familiarity, privacy and security concerns," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 619-629.
    7. Bechara, Antoine & Damasio, Antonio R., 2005. "The somatic marker hypothesis: A neural theory of economic decision," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 336-372, August.
    8. Francesca Bonetti & Gary Warnaby & Lee Quinn, 2018. "Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Physical and Online Retailing: A Review, Synthesis and Research Agenda," Progress in IS, in: Timothy Jung & M. Claudia tom Dieck (ed.), Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, pages 119-132, Springer.
    9. Peck, Joann & Childers, Terry L., 2006. "If I touch it I have to have it: Individual and environmental influences on impulse purchasing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(6), pages 765-769, June.
    10. Eroglu, Sevgin A. & Machleit, Karen A. & Davis, Lenita M., 2001. "Atmospheric qualities of online retailing: A conceptual model and implications," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 177-184, November.
    11. Tim Hilken & Ko de Ruyter & Mathew Chylinski & Dominik Mahr & Debbie I. Keeling, 2017. "Augmenting the eye of the beholder: exploring the strategic potential of augmented reality to enhance online service experiences," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(6), pages 884-905, November.
    12. Mathmann, Frank & Chylinski, Mathew & de Ruyter, Ko & Higgins, E. Tory, 2017. "When Plentiful Platforms Pay Off: Assessment Orientation Moderates the Effect of Assortment Size on Choice Engagement and Product Valuation," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 212-227.
    13. Heller, Jonas & Chylinski, Mathew & de Ruyter, Ko & Mahr, Dominik & Keeling, Debbie I., 2019. "Let Me Imagine That for You: Transforming the Retail Frontline Through Augmenting Customer Mental Imagery Ability," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 94-114.
    14. Ketron, Seth, 2018. "Perceived Product Sizes in Visually Complex Environments," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 154-166.
    15. Mahdokht Kalantari & Philipp Rauschnabel, 2018. "Exploring the Early Adopters of Augmented Reality Smart Glasses: The Case of Microsoft HoloLens," Progress in IS, in: Timothy Jung & M. Claudia tom Dieck (ed.), Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, pages 229-245, Springer.
    16. Dipayan Biswas & Kaisa Lund & Courtney Szocs, 2019. "Sounds like a healthy retail atmospheric strategy: Effects of ambient music and background noise on food sales," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 37-55, January.
    17. Mazaheri, Ebrahim & Richard, Marie Odile & Laroche, Michel & Ueltschy, Linda C., 2014. "The influence of culture, emotions, intangibility, and atmospheric cues on online behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 253-259.
    18. Peck, Joann & Childers, Terry L, 2003. "Individual Differences in Haptic Information Processing: The "Need for Touch" Scale," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 30(3), pages 430-442, December.
    19. Petit, Olivia & Velasco, Carlos & Spence, Charles, 2019. "Digital Sensory Marketing: Integrating New Technologies Into Multisensory Online Experience," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 42-61.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Perlman, Yael, 2022. "Pricing decisions of online and offline retailers, each offering a competing benefit," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 9(C).
    2. Evanschitzky, Heiner & Bartikowski, Boris & Baines, Tim & Blut, Markus & Brock, Christian & Kleinlercher, Kristina & Naik, Parikshit & Petit, Olivia & Rudolph, Thomas & Spence, Charles & Velasco, Carl, 2020. "Digital Disruption in Retailing and Beyond," SMR - Journal of Service Management Research, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 4(4), pages 187-204.
    3. Vieira, Valter Afonso & Rafael, Diego Nogueira & Agnihotri, Raj, 2022. "Augmented reality generalizations: A meta-analytical review on consumer-related outcomes and the mediating role of hedonic and utilitarian values," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 170-184.
    4. Hochstein, Bryan & Bolander, Willy & Christenson, Brett & Pratt, Alexander B. & Reynolds, Kristy, 2021. "An Investigation of Consumer Subjective Knowledge in Frontline Interactions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 336-346.
    5. Yunjeong Kim, 2021. "Revitalization of Offline Fashion Stores: Exploring Strategies to Improve the Smart Retailing Experience by Applying Mobile Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-16, March.
    6. Flavián, Carlos & Ibáñez-Sánchez, Sergio & Orús, Carlos, 2021. "The influence of scent on virtual reality experiences: The role of aroma-content congruence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 289-301.
    7. Jessen, Alexander & Hilken, Tim & Chylinski, Mathew & Mahr, Dominik & Heller, Jonas & Keeling, Debbie Isobel & de Ruyter, Ko, 2020. "The playground effect: How augmented reality drives creative customer engagement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 85-98.
    8. Poushneh, Atieh, 2021. "How close do we feel to virtual product to make a purchase decision? Impact of perceived proximity to virtual product and temporal purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    9. Wedel, Michel & Bigné, Enrique & Zhang, Jie, 2020. "Virtual and augmented reality: Advancing research in consumer marketing," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 443-465.
    10. Paulina Jusiuk, 2023. "Influence of Pro-Environmental Attitudes on the Choice between Tangible and Virtual Product Forms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-24, July.
    11. Golf-Papez, Maja & Heller, Jonas & Hilken, Tim & Chylinski, Mathew & de Ruyter, Ko & Keeling, Debbie I. & Mahr, Dominik, 2022. "Embracing falsity through the metaverse: The case of synthetic customer experiences," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 65(6), pages 739-749.
    12. Bin Kim, Woo & Jung Choo, Ho, 2023. "How virtual reality shopping experience enhances consumer creativity: The mediating role of perceptual curiosity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    13. Sun, Chunhua & Fang, Yuan & Kong, Meng & Chen, Xiayu & Liu, Yezheng, 2022. "Influence of augmented reality product display on consumers’ product attitudes: A product uncertainty reduction perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. William Fritz & Rhonda Hadi & Andrew Stephen, 2023. "From tablet to table: How augmented reality influences food desirability," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 503-529, May.
    15. Chylinski, Mathew & Heller, Jonas & Hilken, Tim & Keeling, Debbie Isobel & Mahr, Dominik & de Ruyter, Ko, 2020. "Augmented reality marketing: A technology-enabled approach to situated customer experience," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 374-384.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chylinski, Mathew & Heller, Jonas & Hilken, Tim & Keeling, Debbie Isobel & Mahr, Dominik & de Ruyter, Ko, 2020. "Augmented reality marketing: A technology-enabled approach to situated customer experience," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 374-384.
    2. Stefan Hoffmann & Tom Joerß & Robert Mai & Payam Akbar, 2022. "Augmented reality-delivered product information at the point of sale: when information controllability backfires," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 743-776, July.
    3. Jessen, Alexander & Hilken, Tim & Chylinski, Mathew & Mahr, Dominik & Heller, Jonas & Keeling, Debbie Isobel & de Ruyter, Ko, 2020. "The playground effect: How augmented reality drives creative customer engagement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 85-98.
    4. Jayaswal, Pragya & Parida, Biswajita, 2023. "The role of augmented reality in redefining e-tailing: A review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    5. Joerß, Tom & Hoffmann, Stefan & Mai, Robert & Akbar, Payam, 2021. "Digitalization as solution to environmental problems? When users rely on augmented reality-recommendation agents," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 510-523.
    6. Vieira, Valter Afonso & Rafael, Diego Nogueira & Agnihotri, Raj, 2022. "Augmented reality generalizations: A meta-analytical review on consumer-related outcomes and the mediating role of hedonic and utilitarian values," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 170-184.
    7. Wedel, Michel & Bigné, Enrique & Zhang, Jie, 2020. "Virtual and augmented reality: Advancing research in consumer marketing," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 443-465.
    8. Ho, Xuan Huong & Nguyen, Dong Phong & Cheng, Julian Ming Sung & Le, Angelina Nhat Hanh, 2022. "Customer engagement in the context of retail mobile apps: A contingency model integrating spatial presence experience and its drivers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. Petit, Olivia & Javornik, Ana & Velasco, Carlos, 2022. "We Eat First with Our (Digital) Eyes: Enhancing Mental Simulation of Eating Experiences via Visual-Enabling Technologies," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 277-293.
    10. Pathak, Kanishka & Prakash, Gyan, 2023. "Exploring the role of augmented reality in purchase intention: Through flow and immersive experience," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    11. Javornik, Ana & Marder, Ben & Pizzetti, Marta & Warlop, Luk, 2021. "Augmented self - The effects of virtual face augmentation on consumers' self-concept," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 170-187.
    12. Tim Hilken & Debbie I. Keeling & Ko Ruyter & Dominik Mahr & Mathew Chylinski, 2020. "Seeing eye to eye: social augmented reality and shared decision making in the marketplace," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 143-164, March.
    13. Hsu, Sheila Hsuan-Yu & Tsou, Hung-Tai & Chen, Ja-Shen, 2021. "“Yes, we do. Why not use augmented reality?†customer responses to experiential presentations of AR-based applications," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    14. Poushneh, Atieh, 2021. "How close do we feel to virtual product to make a purchase decision? Impact of perceived proximity to virtual product and temporal purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    15. Heller, Jonas & Chylinski, Mathew & de Ruyter, Ko & Mahr, Dominik & Keeling, Debbie I., 2019. "Let Me Imagine That for You: Transforming the Retail Frontline Through Augmenting Customer Mental Imagery Ability," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 94-114.
    16. Roggeveen, Anne L. & Grewal, Dhruv & Karsberg, John & Noble, Stephanie M. & Nordfält, Jens & Patrick, Vanessa M. & Schweiger, Elisa & Soysal, Gonca & Dillard, Annemarie & Cooper, Nora & Olson, Richard, 2021. "Forging meaningful consumer-brand relationships through creative merchandise offerings and innovative merchandising strategies," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 81-98.
    17. Sun, Chunhua & Fang, Yuan & Kong, Meng & Chen, Xiayu & Liu, Yezheng, 2022. "Influence of augmented reality product display on consumers’ product attitudes: A product uncertainty reduction perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    18. William Fritz & Rhonda Hadi & Andrew Stephen, 2023. "From tablet to table: How augmented reality influences food desirability," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 503-529, May.
    19. Basu, Rituparna & Paul, Justin & Singh, Kandarp, 2022. "Visual merchandising and store atmospherics: An integrated review and future research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 397-408.
    20. Rahman, Muhammad Sabbir & Bag, Surajit & Hossain, Md Afnan & Abdel Fattah, Fadi Abdel Muniem & Gani, Mohammad Osman & Rana, Nripendra P., 2023. "The new wave of AI-powered luxury brands online shopping experience: The role of digital multisensory cues and customers’ engagement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jouret:v:95:y:2019:i:4:p:219-234. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.