Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Applied To E-Commerce: A Literature Review
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Applied To E-Commerce: A Literature Review
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Applied To E-Commerce: A Literature Review
1 Introduction
RA, the above to improve the shopping experience, focused on the client, providing a
more immersive environment with a greater sense of reality.
This document is structured as follows: section 2 presents the background and con-
cepts related to the study, section 3 details the work methodology, section 4 shows the
answers to the research questions, and, finally, section 5 presents the conclusions and
ideas for the future work.
2 Background
2.2 E-commerce
Due to globalization and the penetration of information and communication technolo-
gies, there are open spaces that companies have been able to use, thus promoting the
sale of products, systems, or services through the Internet. The concept of electronic
commerce is not new. Jeffrey Rayport in 1999, defined electronic commerce as: “the
practice of selling real products for real money through online channels” [6].
Nowadays, e-commerce has taken a relevant space within companies’ sales, a situa-
tion exacerbated by the covid 19 pandemic because people avoid leaving their homes
[7]. E-commerce can be implemented in various ways, considering whether the person
who buys or sells is a client or a business or company, we have, business to business
(B2B), business to consumer (B2C), consumer to consumer (C2C, consumer to con-
sumer) and consumer to business (C2B) among others [8].
Technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and augmented reality have been on the rise,
although they are not new techniques, with the presentation of Mark Zuckerberg’s
metaverse in 2021 (Meta Platforms, Inc.) these technologies have emerged with greater
force, and we all look forward to these environments more immersive and new associ-
ated experiences.
3
Authors indicate that the definition of virtual reality dates back to the mid-1970s [9].
With various definitions of Virtual Reality (VR), authors have given way to studies to
unify their definition [10]. We can highlight that several authors agree on their defini-
tions in the use of three-dimensional computing technology, which provides an inter-
active and immersive environment for users, through the use of several devices.
Augmented Reality (AR)for your part, is defined as follows: “a medium in which
digital information is overlaid on the physical world that is in both spatial and temporal
registration with the physical world and that is interactive in real time” [11].
Today, VR is widely used in various areas such as video games, education, and med-
icine. In the medical area, such as kinesiology, it has been used to treat movement prob-
lems due to pain and for the proper performance of exercises [12][13]. Together, VR
and AR have also been used for medical and educational purposes [14][3]. In this sense,
Mixed Reality (MR) is used in this work as that technology that implements virtual
reality and augmented reality [15] in a combined way, not as a synonym of augmented
reality or a more immersive augmented reality as other authors have proposed.
3 Methodology
The literature review consisted of four stages: research questions, data sources, selec-
tion of articles, and article classification and resuts.
3.1 Research Questions
We defined the research questions to obtain general concepts in such a way to collect
works and get trends associated with the topics under study. The research questions that
were defined were:
(1) Are there uses of augmented, virtual, or mixed reality in e-commerce?
(2) what is the purpose of the implementation VR, AR or MR in the articles
found?
(3) What results does it have on the consumer experience?
3.2 Data Sources
To search for the articles, five databases were used, all related to the topics under study,
hoping to find an adequate number of articles to analyze, these databases are Web of
Science (WoS), ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Science Direct and Scopus.
The articles were searched using the search string detailed in Table 1, and consider-
ing the elements described in the research questions.
The search criteria in the databases were applied with the search by abstract option
because all the databases consulted have this option, so we will carry out a more effi-
cient search using the tools provided by the same data sources. The search for articles
was carried out in May 2022.
After the abstract reading, 28 articles were selected for full reading, of which 5 were
not included in the study because we did not have access to them. Finally, the study
was carried out with 23 scientific articles. See Fig. 1.
About the year of publication of the selected articles, there is a tendency to increase
the number of items as the years progress. In Fig. 3 we can see the papers published by
year, only in 2019 is there a drop. Concerning 2022, since the search ended in May,
there will probably be more publications to add.
In the articles reviewed, it can be noted that most of them (56%) implement virtual
reality, which corresponds to 12 articles, followed by a mixed reality, which for this
study is related to the implementation of both augmented and virtual realities (26%),
with 6 items. Finally, augmented reality has a lower percentage (22%) with only 5 ar-
ticles.
6
Regarding the types of products that the e-commerce market, in the articles re-
viewed, they are aimed at supermarkets (6 papers), food products (2 articles), furniture
(1 article), sunglasses (2 articles), tourism (1 article), travel (1 article), video games (1
article), clothing (1 article), and watches (1 article). Other articles analyzed do not spe-
cifically identify the product they market since the concepts are generally used for the
product markets (7 articles). This information only represents a frequency of ideas.
Then, it has no direct relationship with the number of papers. See Fig. 5.
The classification of the articles was carried out considering (i) articles that imple-
ment Virtual Reality (Table 3), (ii) articles that present the incorporation of both aug-
mented reality and virtual reality (Table 4), and (iii) articles that implement Augmented
Reality (Table 5).
[16] This paper uses VR to examine an offline showroom versus an online virtual real-
ity web room linked with artificial intelligence to recommend products to custom-
ers. The results indicate that adopting AI will improve your return policies, maxim-
ize resale returns and reduce the risks of stock-outs and shortages.
7
[17] It uses VR with a haptic combination so the customer can realize the weight of the
ordered item. This allows for greater customer immersion and improves customer
satisfaction.
[18] Use VR to demonstrate a positive effect on customer loyalty to the brand consider-
ing the entire purchase process.
[1] This article uses VR to simulate social interaction in a virtual supermarket using
avatars. It presents an improvement in the virtual shopping experience. Through
social interaction with VR, consumers’ enjoyment, immersion, and telepresence
experience were significantly enhanced.
[19] The study proposes a framework to incorporate a set of virtual reality solutions that
allow obtaining information about the consumer through the analysis of consumer
interaction in a virtual reality store. This gives the consumer an immersive experi-
ence and provides a personalized experience that promotes the purchase of the
product.
[20] The research focuses on defining UI and UX design criteria considering VR factors
to meet the needs and user experience in an e-commerce environment. For this, it
uses various questionnaires and methodologies that allow UI and UX design crite-
ria for VR. centered on five main themes: screen, operation and prompt, safety and
experience of use, system functions, and transaction.
[21] Analyze the effectiveness of VR devices and VR content formats. Establishing that
attractive virtual environments generate affection and a deep sense of presence im-
proves commercial performance, impacting purchase intention.
[22] It uses VR to design and implement a VR architecture for product purchase, which
consists of six modules: virtual shopping mall, item display, online payment, inter-
action, game, and advertising. Recreating a shopping center for electronic com-
merce.
[23] In this article, VR is used to create a new shopping experience considering the spa-
tial placement of products in apartment settings.
[24] Uses VR to implement e-commerce that incorporates three-dimensional elements
and intelligent sensors, thus integrating elements of industry 4.0 in retail created
with virtual reality.
[25] Presents a theoretical study showing a typology of VR and a dual theoretical model
of participation and use of VR to establish that immersive processes influence con-
sumer responses through imagination, co-creation, and telepresence
[26] Recreate a supermarket in areas of beer, water, and wine. It puts two virtual envi-
ronments, one navigable 360 and another free 3d navigation. It states that although
HMDs are more cumbersome than other devices, they provide better experiences
and more excellent consumer responses. Furthermore, discomfort does not impact
the sense of presence or brand recall. Improves purchase intention.
[27] AR and VR use them to display various photos from different locations and angles. In
addition, it features audio and video clips providing a broader range of physical store
information. In other words, it is assimilated as if the customer were in person at the
store—aspects of rescuing: Use machine learning, specifically neural networks, to dis-
cover customer purchasing patterns.
[28] Use virtual and augmented reality to assess how information availability supports cus-
tomer experience and decision-making, comparing traditional e-commerce to virtual
commerce.
[29] They use an AR/VR-based clothing fitting system to validate how it positively contrib-
utes to the online shopping experience and provides consumers with positive experi-
ences. They also carry out tests based on AR with personalized human movement to
provide a more comfortable shopping experience.
Attractive and, therefore, increase their purchase intention.
[30] Analyze customer perception in virtual spaces compared to physical spaces, comparing
what is offered on a website, 2D, versus what is provided by an AR or VR.
[31] This paper consider an e-commerce purchases within a game, a store to buy, with much
more immersive virtual reality, with augmented reality with a virtual assistant or ava-
tar.
[32] The use of a HoloLens mixed reality device is proposed to implement a holographic
application that allows personalized recommendations to be made to customers of a
store. This shopping experience is more pleasant, facilitates free mobility for the user,
and encourages the purchase decision.
According to the articles reviewed, the following answers can be given to the research
questions defined.
9
shopping experience. We also noted that there are incorporations of AI algorithms, neu-
ral networks, to suggest customer preferences [27] [16], which incorporates new ele-
ments for the use of recommender systems.
Some aspects that could limit the shopping experience in the studies analyzed were
related to the need for a good internet connection and the availability of specific hard-
ware, such as smart phones, to obtain a better experience. However, given the incorpo-
ration of 5G technologies and the widespread use of mobile devices, these possible
limitations could be reduced.
This work reviews specific articles related to VR, AR, and/or MR. In future work,
we intend to extend this work, analyzing the customer shopping experience and evalu-
ating the customer experience in e-commerce, which relates to VR, AR and/or MR.
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