44. Augmented Reality: Toward a Research Agenda for Studying the Impact of Its Presence Dimensions on Consumer Behavior

Augmented reality (AR) virtual try-ons (VTO) have emerged as an important decision-making tool because of the highly realistic experience. For instance, AR enables users to virtually try-on sunglasses by placing the virtual product on their face. Research increasingly emphasizes the importance of spatial presence in the realistic AR experience. However, prior research on AR presence remains scant and overlooks social and self-presence. To fill this gap, we review literature on presence in the context of prior immersive technologies and propose a future research agenda on the impact of AR presence dimensions on product-relevant outcomes. This article starts by presenting AR spatial presence definition and proposing definitions for AR social and self-presence by drawing parallels between AR apps features and the presence dimensions of prior immersive shopping technologies. Thereafter, our review uncovers how each presence dimension leads to positive consumer outcomes. Then, we propose a research agenda for future studies of AR presence in marketing that outlines the need for a multidimensional perspective of presence to help uncover their unique impact on consumer responses. In addition, future research should investigate which contextual factors (marketing channels, for instance, in store and online as well as the types of products displayed in AR for instance makeup and sunglasses) might explain differences in the outcomes of presence. Our study has several limitations as it only considers the type of presence dimensions relevant to current AR-VTO experiences.