The Role of Augmented and Virtual Reality in Shaping Retail Marketing: A Meta-Analysis

Xiaowei Fan, Jiyao Xun (), Les Dolega and Lin Xiong
Additional contact information
Xiaowei Fan: Entrepreneur College, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou 215400, China
Jiyao Xun: Entrepreneur College, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou 215400, China
Les Dolega: Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK
Lin Xiong: School of Intelligent Finance and Business, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou 215400, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 2, 1-37

Abstract: The Fourth Industrial Revolution has brought advanced technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), transforming consumer behavior in retailing and arousing the interest of scholars in studying customer responses to these technologies in retail settings. However, owing to variations in specific contextual factors, the results of related research have been mixed, which impedes retailers’ capacity to gain a systematic understanding of the formulation of well-informed marketing decisions in the context of AR and VR retailing. To address these gaps, this systematic review synthesizes extant empirical evidence with 1099 effect sizes from 111 published studies with 136 datasets and 547,415 sample sizes. This study is based on well-established theories, including the technology acceptance model, the customer journey theory, and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, which are extended to create a more comprehensive framework that is adapted for the customer journey in AR and VR retailing. Our findings reveal significant and positive correlations for all the proposed constructs, including the experience; intrinsic, extrinsic, hedonic, and utilitarian factors; and customer experience, attitude, intention, and loyalty, and verify the significant moderating effects for technology and product types. From a management perspective, our findings provide a systematic understanding of enhancing retailers’ integrated sustainable marketing strategies in the context of AR and VR retail and propose a forward-looking research agenda.

Keywords: retailing; consumer behavior; augmented reality; virtual reality; meta-analytic structural equation modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/2/728/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/2/728/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:2:p:728-:d:1569716

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().