From Interaction to Immersion: Exploring AR and VR's Transformative Role in Consumer Engagement

Abstract

In recent times, marketers have started using augmented and virtual reality (AR-VR) to offer unique customer experiences and enhance engagement. While the use of AR-VR in marketing has become the ‘new normal', businesses are still struggling to use these tools to effectively attract and retain customers. Building on the existing literature, this chapter argues that overcoming these challenges requires understanding how to seamlessly integrate these tools throughout the customer journey. This will help businesses in curating AR-VR-enabled spaces that are aligned with customers' experiential preferences at different stages. In this chapter, the authors first summarize the impact of AR-VR technologies on customer engagement. Secondly, the challenges related to integrating these immersive technologies are highlighted. The authors then integrate the literature on AR-VR technologies and the customer journey and propose a framework and encourage academicians and practitioners to focus more on the different stages of the customer journey while designing AR-VR enabled marketing strategies.