The impact of Augmented Reality in the online beauty market: How augmented reality impacts consumer’s online purchase intention of beauty products?

Abstract

The impact of Covid-19 pandemic has brought major changes to the Beauty Market. Testers are now with restrict use and consumers are afraid to return to physical spaces due to possible contamination. The main driver of purchase in physical stores - personalized advice and testing of products on the skin - is now committed to the new reality to which the entire population is subject. Online shopping is now the main mean of purchase for consumers, however, the beauty market has still great challenges to overcome in this area. Consumers are not allowed to try the products and personalized advice is often robotic. In fact, brands are experimenting new ways to respond consumer’s needs using Augmented Reality (AR) solutions through the online and reduce the differences from physical purchase to online. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand if beauty companies are being penalized by AR and how it is affecting the intention of their consumers to buy beauty products through the online channel with this technology. To understand that, important variables were studied to understand their impact on the intention of online shopping: technology adoption propensity, brand engagement, brand coolness and finally, perception of goods with AR. From the outcome of the study, it was possible to affirm that AR tools can be an effective way to increment the performance of beauty companies on their online channels. Moreover, the main drivers of online purchase intention with AR tools were identified, and as well a moderator. The current research might contribute for companies of the beauty industry to decide whether to invest or not in augmented reality and what can be their main challenges.