A journal article on using augmented reality in retail, written by three people associated with the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, has won the H. Paul Root Award for 2022.
The annual prize, co-sponsored by the American Marketing Association (AMA) and the Marketing Science Institute (MSI), is given to the Journal of Marketing article that has made the most significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of marketing in a calendar year.
The paper, ‘Augmented reality in retail and its impact on sales’, was co-authored by Sandeep R. Chandukala, Srinivas K. Reddy and Yong-Chin Tan.
Chandukala is Associate Professor of Marketing at LKCSB, Reddy is Professor Emeritus at the school while Tan, a doctoral candidate at LKCSB from 2014 to 2019, is now Assistant Professor of Marketing at the City University of Hong Kong.
The paper adopted a retailer’s perspective to examine augmented reality (AR), a technology that superimposes virtual objects onto a live view of physical environments, and also examines how it could impact the experience of product evaluation and, ultimately, product sales.
The study also observed how AR might impact sales for products with different characteristics, such as brand popularity, product appeal, rating and price.
Using data obtained from an international cosmetics retailer, the study found that AR usage on the retailer’s mobile app is associated with higher sales for brands that are less popular, products with narrower appeal, and products that are more expensive.
It discovered that the effect of AR is stronger for customers who are new to the online channel or product category. This suggests that an increase in sales could come from online channel adoption and category expansion.
It also found that there is converging evidence that AR is most effective when product-related uncertainty is high, such that the technology has the potential to increase sales by reducing uncertainty and instilling purchase confidence
The authors concluded the paper by noting that the research themes of their study could be broadened to encompass other “extended realities”, such as virtual reality and mixed reality.
According to the selection committee that awarded the prize, the winning paper “addresses a growing issue in retail by revealing how marketing managers and online retailers could transform the way they connect with customers at different stages of the customer journey” using AR.
The committee added that the research “has significant real-world impact” as AR in retail is projected to grow rapidly “in the next few years”, and that the authors “offer strong actionable recommendations to help marketers determine when AR would be most effective…”
