Examining User Adoption of Augmented Reality Technology - An Empirical Study

Abstract

The development of technology and the internet has pushed the growth of the E Commerce sector. This growth has urged utilizing technology to offer better products and services. With the rapid growth in online shopping, e-commerce platforms face high product returns and cart abandonment, which increase cost and waste of resources due to a lack of experience with the product before placing the order. Further, to meet the technological advancements and offer a better shopping experience, companies can utilize technologies such as AR (Augmented Reality). AR uses visual technology, which provides a virtual product experience within the users' surroundings, offering an enhanced shopping experience. AR is a novel technology, and there is a dearth of studies in developing countries such as India. Hence, it is essential to understand the customer's perspective towards using AR in online shopping platforms. This thesis examines the factors influencing users' behavioral intention towards AR in online shopping platforms. Further, the study has also investigated the mediating role of performance expectancy, effort expectancy and trust between the factors and user behavioral intention. The study has adopted the UTAUT 3 theory, extending it with variables, namely privacy risk, trust, and quality factors. The study is quantitative. Data was collected from Tier 1 cities in South India and analysed using SPSS and AMOS. The descriptive statistics, reliability, and validity tests were computed using IBSS SPSS software 25, whereas the SEM technique was computed using IBM SPSS AMOS 23 software. The proposed research model was verified through the measurement model, and the structural model has reported a good model fit. The research used 1,029 respondents for the empirical analysis. The statistical analysis of the research data revealed that performance expectancy, Trust, social influence, hedonic motivation, personal innovativeness, and information quality are the significant factors influencing user intention. Trust emerged as the most critical factor, and hedonic motivation emerged as a highly influential factor in UTAUT. Meanwhile, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, system quality, and privacy risk were found to be insignificant predictors. The study has also examined the presence of performance expectancy, effort expectancy and trust as mediators. Except for effort expectancy, the study found the mediating role of performance expectancy and trust among the factors. Research on user adoption of AR technology in online shopping apps is nascent. Hence, the present study has attempted to contribute to the literature area with empirical results. Furthermore, the research has offered valuable theoretical and practical implications for the benefit of academia and policymakers.