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Virtual try-on (VTO) technology offers an opportunity for fashion and beauty brands to provide enriched self-explorative experiences. The increased popularity of VTOs makes it urgent to understand the drivers and consequences of the exploration of styles in VTO contexts (herein called self-explorative engagement). Notably, little is known about the antecedent and outcomes of the personalized self-explorative experience central to VTOs. This paper aims to fill this knowledge gap.

An online quasi-experiment (N = 500) was conducted in the context of fashion and beauty VTOs. Participants were asked to virtually try on sunglasses or lipsticks and subsequently answer a questionnaire measuring the key constructs: self-presence (i.e. physical similarity and identification), self-explorative engagement (i.e. exploration of styles in VTO context), brand cognitive processing and brand attitude. The authors analyze the data with structural equation modeling via maximum likelihood estimation in LISREL.

The experience of self-presence during consumers’ use of VTOs in augmented reality environments has a positive effect on self-explorative engagement. Furthermore, a mediation analysis reveals that self-explorative engagement improves brand attitude via brand cognitive processing. The results are confirmed for two popular fashion and beauty brands.

Grounded in extended self theory, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to show that a realistic VTO experience encourages self-extension via a process starting from the exploration of styles and results in increased brand cognitive processing and more positive brand attitudes. The exploration of styles is enabled by self-presence.

This paper aims to explore the current and future roles of augmented reality (AR) as an enabler of omnichannel experiences across the customer journey. To advance the conceptual understanding and managerial exploitation of AR, the paper aims to synthesise current research, illustrating how a variety of current applications merge online and offline experiences, and provides a future research agenda to help advance the state of the art in AR.

Drawing on situated cognition theorising as a guiding framework, the paper reviews previously published research and currently deployed applications to provide a roadmap for future research efforts on AR-enabled omnichannel experiences across the customer journey.

AR offers myriad opportunities to provide customers with a seamless omnichannel journey, smoothing current obstacles, through a unique combination of embedded, embodied and extended customer experiences. These three principles constitute the overarching value drivers of AR and offer coherent, theory-driven organising principles for managers and researchers alike.

Current research has yet to provide a relevant, conceptually robust understanding of AR-enabled customer experiences. In light of the rapid development and widespread deployment of the technology, this paper provides an urgently needed framework for guiding the development of AR in an omnichannel context.

This study aims to detect the dimensions of the in-store customer shopping experience from the sports retailer perspective and to investigate how the role of sports equipment stores is changing.

This exploratory study performs semi-structured interviews with retail managers of sports equipment stores.

This research reveals the importance of the dimensions of immersive design, sensorial ambient elements, social relationships, trialability and real experience sharing in designing a memorable in-store shopping experience in sports stores, and it highlights that the store's role in the sports context is transitioning from sales space to an interactive, immersive, engaging and convivial place. It proposes a model to design the in-store customer shopping experience effectively.

Sports equipment managers can make their physical stores as experiential as possible by investing in expert, passionate personnel and technology in order to create a real in-store experience of the product and the sports practice.

While sports equipment retailers acknowledge the importance of providing customers with a memorable shopping experience by creating an evocative environment and placing multiple touchpoints in stores, management scholars have paid limited attention to sports stores. This study explores the ways in which sports retail managers can design their stores effectively in experiential terms.

This teaching case aims to analyze the business model of Amaro, a company that directly sells lifestyle goods to end consumers (B2C), focused on the women's market. Amaro's original business model is introduced and a challenging dilemma is proposed: could Amaro innovate its business model, moving from a digitally native vertical brand (DNVB)-type company to a platform, specifically a vertical marketplace focused on the female audience? Would Amaro be prepared for this evolution or would it be more appropriate to focus on or strengthen the DNVB model?

This teaching case was developed based on in-depth interviews with Amaro's leadership. The teaching notes were proposed based on business model innovation, competitive positioning and market trends concepts. The teaching case considers a new type of business model called DNVB. Students can review the concepts, create analyses and recommend which strategic options can leverage the company for a new growing cycle.

Using the case study in the classroom should promote the discussion and reflections on business model innovation and the future of retail in omnichannel contexts - Amaro offers products online (on an e-commerce platform and native mobile applications) and physically in locations called guide shops. The authors suggested the adoption of frameworks and tools (e.g. the competitive positioning map to allow students to visualize ways to compare strategies and make decisions).

The case introduces a fictional dilemma related to the decision to maximize offline or online investments or completely change the company's business model by adding a new vertical marketplace approach.

This teaching case contributes to the student's learning about business model innovation and evolution. Case discussions could explore contemporary concepts such as value proposition, disintermediation and omnichannel commerce.

Offering goods directly to the consumers by using modern technological architecture through vertical integration within the supply chain makes the DNVB business model an original topic in the start-up segment.

The authors explore neuro-enhanced reality (NeR) as a novel approach for enhancing service communication between customers, frontline employees, and service organizations that extends beyond current state-of-the-art approaches based on augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies.

The authors first take stock of research on reality-enhanced service communication with AR and VR, then complement these insights with emerging neuroscientific research to conceptualize how NeR enables innovative forms of service communication. On this basis, the authors develop a research agenda to guide the future study and managerial exploitation of NeR.

AR and VR already offer unique affordances for digital-to-physical communication, but these can be extended with NeR. Specifically, NeR supports neuro-to-digital and digital-to-neuro communication based on neuroimaging (e.g. controlling digital content through thought) and neurostimulation (e.g. eliciting brain responses based on digital content). This provides a basis for outlining possible applications of NeR across service settings.

The authors advance knowledge on reality-enhanced service communication with AR and VR, whilst also demonstrating how neuroscientific research can be extended from understanding brain activity to generating novel service interactions.

Augmented reality (AR) technology currently plays a central role in the retail sector, rapidly changing consumers’ behaviours and retailers’ strategies. The purpose of this paper is to identify the behavioural changes that have occurred due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the retail sector, and how AR technology can be used as a valid and useful response to these new consumer habits.

Exploratory research was conducted to determine how AR has helped people shop differently than they did before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic by evaluating two retail-sector AR applications (apps). In-depth interviews were conducted and assessed using thematic analysis.

This paper identifies a new paradigm involving COVID-19 and AR by identifying several factors that are related to the rapid spread of COVID-19 and have modified consumers’ shopping habits. Additionally, it shows how interactive technologies, such as AR, are useful tools that can be employed to overcome retailing crises driven by external environmental factors, such as COVID-19, and enhance shopping experiences.

This research reveals the role of AR technologies in transformed economic and social contexts. By investigating the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated consequences, i.e. isolation, quarantines and lockdowns; the fear of contracting the virus and the new needs of people to shop while social distancing, this study enriches AR research with a fourth characteristic, augmented social distance.

With the growing need for employees to be innovative, public-sector organizations are investing in employee training. This study aims to examine the effects of a combined Lean Six Sigma and innovation training, using action learning, on public-sector employees’ creative role identity and innovative work behavior.

The authors studied a public service agency in Singapore in which a five-day Lean Innovation Training was implemented, using a combination of Lean Six Sigma and Creative Problem-Solving tools, with a simulation on day one and subsequent team-based project coaching, spread over six months. The authors administered pre- and postintervention surveys among all the employees, and initiated group interviews and observations before, during and after the intervention.

Creative role identity and innovative work behavior had significantly improved six months after the intervention, enabled through senior management’s transformational leadership. The training induced managers to role-model innovative work behaviors while cocreating, with their employees, a renewal of their agency’s core processes. The three completed improvement projects contributed to an innovative work culture and reduced service turnaround time.

Starting with a role-playing simulation on the first day, during which leaders and followers swapped roles, the action-learning type training taught all the organizational members to use various Lean Six Sigma and Creative Problem-Solving tools. This nimble Lean Innovation Training, and subsequent team-based project coaching, exemplifies how advancing the staff’s creative role identity can have a positive impact.

This study, grounded in the SOR theory, aims to enrich the understanding of customer citizenship behaviour in omnichannel fashion retail by examining how different customer experiences enhance customer engagement and how that engagement leads to customer citizenship behaviour. The influence of return policies on the relationship between customer engagement and customer citizenship behaviour was also examined.

Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to examine the framework of the proposed study with data collected through a survey (n = 251) to examine the opinions of the respondents about the variables mentioned. The authors also assessed the proposed framework using predictive power assessment using PLS predict.

The study results reveal that customers’ experiences of integration and flexibility in omnichannel retail are positively associated with their engagement. However, customer experiences of connectivity, consistency and personalization do not appear to affect customer engagement significantly in omnichannel retail. The return policy positively moderates the relationship between customer engagement and customer citizenship behaviour in the omnichannel fashion retail context. Predictive power assessment shows that the proposed model has high prediction accuracy.

This study contributes to the marketing literature by investigating different dimensions of consumer experience collectively and its impact on customer engagement and citizenship behaviour. Furthermore, the study contributes to omnichannel retail in fashion industry by testing the return policy as a moderator variable on the relationship between customer engagement and citizenship behaviour.

Este estudio, basado en la teoría SOR, enriquece la comprensión del comportamiento cívico del cliente en el comercio minorista de moda omnicanal examinando cómo las diferentes experiencias del cliente mejoran el compromiso de éste y cómo dicho compromiso conduce al comportamiento cívico del cliente. También se examina la influencia de las políticas de devolución en la relación entre el compromiso del cliente y el comportamiento ciudadano del cliente.

Se utilizó la modelización PLS-SEM para examinar el marco del estudio propuesto con datos recogidos mediante una encuesta (n = 251) para examinar las opiniones de los encuestados sobre las variables mencionadas. Los autores también evaluaron el marco propuesto mediante una evaluación del poder predictivo utilizando la predicción PLS.

Los resultados revelan que las experiencias de integración y flexibilidad de los clientes en el comercio minorista omnicanal se asocian positivamente con su compromiso. Sin embargo, las experiencias de los clientes de conectividad, coherencia y personalización no parecen afectar significativamente al compromiso del cliente en el comercio minorista omnicanal. La política de devoluciones modera positivamente la relación entre el compromiso del cliente y el comportamiento ciudadano en el contexto del comercio minorista de moda omnicanal. La evaluación del poder predictivo mostró que el modelo propuesto tenía una alta precisión de predicción.

El estudio contribuye a la literatura de marketing investigando colectivamente diferentes dimensiones de la experiencia del consumidor y su impacto en el compromiso del cliente y el comportamiento ciudadano. Además, este estudio contribuye a la venta minorista omnicanal en la industria de la moda al probar la política de devoluciones como variable moderadora de la relación entre el compromiso del cliente y el comportamiento ciudadano.

本研究以 SOR 理论为基础, 通过研究不同的顾客体验如何提高顾客参与度, 以及顾客参与度如何推动顾客公民行为, 丰富了对全渠道时尚零售中顾客公民行为的理解。研究还探讨了退货政策对顾客参与和顾客公民行为之间关系的影响。

本文采用 PLS-SEM 模型来检验拟议的研究框架, 并通过调查（n = 251）收集数据, 以检验受访者对上述变量的看法。作者还通过使用 PLS 预测评估预测能力, 对提出的框架进行了评估。

通过调查（n = 251）收集的数据, 使用 PLS-SEM 模型来研究拟议的研究框架, 以考察受访者对上述变量的看法。作者还通过使用 PLS 预测评估预测能力, 对提出的框架进行了评估。

研究结果表明, 顾客在全渠道零售中对整合性和灵活性的体验与他们的参与度呈正相关。然而, 顾客在连通性、一致性和个性化方面的体验似乎并未对顾客参与全渠道零售产生显著影响。退货政策对全渠道时尚零售中顾客参与和公民行为之间的关系起到了积极的调节作用。 预测能力评估表明, 所提出的模型具有较高的预测准确性。

本研究通过对消费者体验的不同维度及其对顾客参与和公民行为的影响进行综合研究, 为营销文献做出了贡献。此外, 本研究通过检验退货政策作为顾客参与和公民行为之间关系的调节变量, 为时尚行业的全渠道零售做出了贡献。

This paper investigate how fit uncertainty impacts product return costs in online retailing and how digital product fitting, a pre-sales fitting practice, can reduce fit uncertainty.

The paper analyzes the current performance of a retailer's e-commerce and return operations by estimating costs generated by product returns, including product handling costs, tied-up capital, inventory holding costs, transportation costs, and order-picking costs. The estimated costs were built on 2,229 return transactions from a Scandinavian fashion footwear retailer. A digital product fitting technology was tested with the retailer’s products and resulted in estimations on how such technology could affect product returns.

The cost of a return is approximately 17% of the prime cost. The major cost elements are product handling costs and transportation costs, which together amount to 72% of the total costs. If well calibrated, the fitting technology can cut fit-related return costs by up to 80%. The findings show how customers reacted to the fitting technology: it was unable to verify fit every time, but it serves as a useful and effective support tool for customers when placing orders.

Virtual fit verification using digital product fitting is key to retailers to reduce fit-related returns. Digital product fitting using three-dimensional scanning is more appropriate for some products, but it is unsuitable for products that are difficult to measure and scan.

The paper contributes an empirical estimate of retail supply chain costs associated with fit uncertainty, as well as theoretical understanding of the role of pre-sales fit verification in avoiding product returns.

In recent years, there has been significant interest in adopting XR (extended reality) technologies such as VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality), particularly in retail. However, extending activities through reality-mediation is still mostly believed to offer an inferior experience due to their shortcomings in usability, wearability, graphical fidelity, etc. This study aims to address the research gap by experimentally examining the acceptance of metaverse shopping.

This study conducts a 2 (VR: with vs. without) × 2 (AR: with vs. without) between-subjects laboratory experiment involving 157 participants in simulated daily shopping environments. This study builds a physical brick-and-mortar store at the campus and stocked it with approximately 600 products with accompanying product information and pricing. The XR devices and a 3D laser scanner were used in constructing the three XR shopping conditions.

Results indicate that XR can offer an experience comparable to, or even surpassing, traditional shopping in terms of its instrumental and hedonic aspects, regardless of a slightly reduced perception of usability. AR negatively affected perceived ease of use, while VR significantly increased perceived enjoyment. It is surprising that the lower perceived ease of use appeared to be disconnected from the attitude toward metaverse shopping.

This study provides important experimental evidence on the acceptance of XR shopping, and the finding that low perceived ease of use may not always be detrimental adds to the theory of technology adoption as a whole. Additionally, it provides an important reference point for future randomized controlled studies exploring the effects of technology on adoption.