Creating Omni-Channel In-Store Shopping Experiences through Augmented-Reality-Based Product Recommending and Comparison

We present a novel approach to the inclusion of online services within a physical retailing scenario through the use of augmented reality (AR) technology and head-mounted displays (HMD). A concept has been designed for providing the innovative combination of product data, comparison support and product recommendations, all directly accessible from the pertinent physical products. Prototypes were implemented and evaluated in several user studies to address questions related to information acquisition, product exploration and user acceptance, including a comparison against a baseline system (i.e., smartphone app without AR capabilities). The results indicate that providing in-store functions via AR HMDs can be on par with a non-AR smartphone approach in terms of practicality, and may provide superior benefits concerning the discovery and exploration of products, and the perception of their differences. However, effort must be dedicated to design AR UIs able to compete against the clearer and more structured information visualization of traditional displays.