Opportunities and Challenges of Augmented Reality Shopping in Emerging Markets

Abstract

Augmented reality (AR) is one of the newly emerging technologies that has ability to completely revolutionise the world as we see it and the manner in which the products are sold and purchased. It has a wide range of applications from entertainment and education through to the healthcare sector, architecture and more. The technology began to be used in applications in the 1990s but was first developed in the 1960s. Over the years, especially with the penetration of smartphone devices, AR has seen far higher use in applications. The major advantage of AR is in the field of the shopping experience of online product buyers. In this study, an overview of the field of AR is presented, comprising definitions of AR, a historical overview of AR and the presence of AR in emerging markets and shopping and marketing in emerging markets with the help of AR tools and the applications. This study also discusses the opportunities and the challenges faced by augmented reality in these emerging markets.