[2207.07643] ARShopping: In-Store Shopping Decision Support Through Augmented Reality and Immersive Visualization

Online shopping gives customers boundless options to choose from, backed by
extensive product details and customer reviews, all from the comfort of home;
yet, no amount of detailed, online information can outweigh the instant
gratification and hands-on understanding of a product that is provided by
physical stores. However, making purchasing decisions in physical stores can be
challenging due to a large number of similar alternatives and limited
accessibility of the relevant product information (e.g., features, ratings, and
reviews). In this work, we present ARShopping: a web-based prototype to
visually communicate detailed product information from an online setting on
portable smart devices (e.g., phones, tablets, glasses), within the physical
space at the point of purchase. This prototype uses augmented reality (AR) to
identify products and display detailed information to help consumers make
purchasing decisions that fulfill their needs while decreasing the
decision-making time. In particular, we use a data fusion algorithm to improve
the precision of the product detection; we then integrate AR visualizations
into the scene to facilitate comparisons across multiple products and features.
We designed our prototype based on interviews with 14 participants to better
understand the utility and ease of use of the prototype.