Augmented Reality in Consumer Decision-Making: Enhancing Purchase Intent Through Immersive Experiences

The advent of augmented reality has become a disruptive force in retail, undermining consumer behavior, purchase intent, and consumer decision-making. This paper investigates the effect of augmented reality in the consumer journey, scrutinizing how AR-enabled experiences help product visualization, engagement, and confidence in purchasing decisions. With AR, consumers can interact with virtual models of a product in real-time, thereby serving as a bridge between physical and digital shopping and minimizing pain and inducing confidence in buying. This new new-age technology has turned the tables on traditional shopping. Virtual try-ons, 3D product visualizations, and AI-powered personalized recommendations influenced immensely consumer engagement and decision-making. Studies show that AR builds consumer confidence, thereby reducing product returns and improving brand value. This paper elaborates on the psychological factors that steer consumer adoption of AR: trust, perceived usefulness, and hedonic motivation along with the technological advances that have enabled wide-scale adoption. Some of the major challenges that hinder the effective deployment of AR technology for retail include the high initial investments, privacy-related issues at the core, device compatibility, and user adoption barriers. Besides the technology exploration, this paper explores the trends in the industry, such as AI-driven AR personalization, social AR commerce, and the effect of MC in AR, which will drive the way for AR ahead in retail. The study demonstrates, through a thorough review of ongoing industry applications, case studies, and empirical research, how businesses can successfully leverage AR to improve consumer satisfaction and therefore enhance customer revenue. The expected market size of AR-commerce to reach around $50 billion by 2027 and how AR will impact the future of the retail market yet again indicates an ongoing evolution wherein immersive and interactive shopping experiences become the norm.