Enhancing Customers’ Knowledge and Decision Making using Augmented Reality

Abstract

Augmented reality has seen massive success in recent years as it provides an opportunity for a seamless and rich user interaction with the real world. Recent studies have shown augmented and virtual reality can play a significant role in the future of retail. Innovations can help customers make good choices and can improve their confidence and satisfaction in their purchasing decisions. It also reduces the physical interaction between customers and store especially during lockdowns (i.e. during pandemics such as COVID-19). This paper presents ARiel, an augmented reality application for mobile commerce (m-commerce), enabling customers to turn catalogued items into 3D animated models. It was developed using Google’s ARCore platform. Customers can try on products such as jewellery or watches using their mobile phones without being physically present in the retail shop. Data about their purchasing decisions are logged in a database. We describe the process of designing and implementing ARiel and the outcome of an evaluation using Nielsen’s ten usability heuristics. We also outline our plan for future work.