Augmented Reality in Retail: A Service Ecosystem Approach

Abstract

This study conducts a single case study on how a co-owned AR-app impact on the Danish design furniture industry. A service ecosystem perspective is used to understand, how augmented reality comes into use in the context of manufacturers, retailers and consumers. Furthermore, the study expands the work of Henningsson et. al. 2019 in conducting a comparative analysis, with the results found in his article, to detect similarities or differences that can be used to build a theory for explaining how AR affects a retail ecosystem. The focal app for this single case study is Danish Design AR, an external app that act as a brand community gathering prominent Danish design brands and allow them to display visualizations of their furniture in the homes of the consumers who use the app. The main conclusions of the study is that an augmented reality app like Danish Design AR may have an ability to change the power structure between service ecosystem actors, by consisting a new customer touch point and by allowing the actor that controls the augmented reality app to influence the consumers during the inspiration phase and the evaluation phase of their buying process. Another conclusion is that if such new customer touch point as an augmented reality app fail to anticipate its effect on every member of the service ecosystem, it can cause a resistance from neglected ecosystem members and thereby prevent adoption.