“I See Myself, Therefore I Purchase”: Factors Influencing Consumer Attitudes Towards m-Commerce AR Apps

Abstract

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is starting to represent a significant share of e-commerce. The use of Augmented Reality (AR) by brands to convey information about their products---within the store and mainly as mobile apps---makes it possible for researchers and managers to understand consumer reactions. Although attitudes towards AR have been studied, the overall effect of distinct aspects such as the influence of others, the imagery, projection and perceived presence, has not been tackled as far as we know. Therefore, we conducted a study on 218 undergraduate students, using a pre-test post-test experimental design to address the following questions: (1) Do AR media characteristics affect consumer attitudes towards the medium in a mobile shopping context? Also, (2) Do the opinion and physical presence of people influence the attitude towards an m-commerce AR app? It found that AR characteristics such as projection and imagery positively influence attitudes towards m-commerce AR apps, whereas social variables did not have any influence.