Augmented Reality and Consumer Experiences

The advent of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) has redefined customer experience. Traditional approaches to consumer engagement are increasingly losing their essence owing to the technologically savvy customers of the twenty-first century. The Technology Acceptance Model by Venkatesh and Bala (2008) was adopted to assess how the perceived usefulness of augmented reality (AR) encourages adoption, and how the complexity of AR affects consumers’ engagement and experience with AR, shaping attitudes towards the technology. The Reality-Virtuality continuum was adopted to illustrate how AR and virtual reality (VR) are then fused to project a mixed reality (MR) environment which simulates the ideal customer experience. This chapter illuminates the nature of interdependence between reality environments and that of simulated perceptions of reality. The objectives of this chapter are to assess the influence of AR on consumer experience, establish the degree of dependence between real and simulated environments as well as proffer an AR model which can achieve maximum user experience. A qualitative methodology was adopted; an exploratory research design was adopted because AR is a fairly new phenomenon in some regions. The target population was adults between 18 and 60 years old with different AR experiences. The scope covered is from 2019 to date when the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in new technologies for business correspondence. Maximum reality-based customer experience with AR is not possible; only perceptions of reality can be amplified. This chapter highlights the challenges of AR in light of the digital divide. Future research may focus on AR’s influence of the choice of service provider in the hotel industry, clothing retail industry, and the telecommunications industry.