More than skin-deep: The influence of presence dimensions on purchase intentions in augmented reality shopping

Virtual try-on applications use augmented reality to virtually display products on consumers’ faces or bodies. That is, they simulate a believable try-on experience by means of psychological presence, whereby the virtual experience feels real to the consumer. Grounded in social cognitive theory, this study is the first to investigate spatial presence, social presence, and self-presence to clarify the impact of virtual try-ons on consumers’ purchase intentions. We demonstrate that the three dimensions of presence have varying effects on purchase intentions. Furthermore, the different outcomes of the presence dimensions are attributed to the symbolic significance ascribed to body modification consumption. We confirm this effect for two contexts that represent low and high levels of body modification. The findings reveal the roles of (1) spatial presence in the low-level body modification context, (2) self-presence in the high-level body modification context, and (3) social presence across different body modification contexts.