Augmented shopping in a socially situated context: The role of augmentation on purchase decision satisfaction in an online shopping environment

Purpose: In this study we examine the current role of augmented reality (AR) as an enabler for consumer purchase satisfaction in an online store. The consumer’s inability to assess contextual information about products, such as product-fit for fashion products, eye-wear or jewellery, is still one of the major shortcomings of online retail stores compared to physical stores (Cho & Schwarz, 2012). We argue that AR can overcome this shortcoming, however only if consumers have the potential to virtually try the product and share the information they receive during the try-on with peers to receive feedback during their shopping process (H1). This interaction hypothesis is based on the theory of socially situated cognition which states that cognition and action are the emergent outcome of dynamic processes of the interaction between an agent and a (shopping) environment (Smith & Semin, 2007). Furthermore, we argue that AR increases the value of the information available for the consumer; hence information value acts as a mediator for the relationship of AR on purchase decision satisfaction (H2). Value: Purchase decision satisfaction can be significantly improved when employing AR in online environments; given users have the ability to share their shopping experience with others. Retailers are interested to increase purchase decision satisfaction, as it is one important antecedent for loyalty, product recommendations and word-of-mouth (Heitmann, Lehmann, & Herrmann, 2007).