Virtual and Augmented Reality in Sensory Marketing: A Systematic Review

This review is intended to provide an up-to-date overview of sensory marketing research exploiting virtual and augmented reality technologies in the retail scenario. The five senses play a fundamental role in the purchasing experience, and the lack of multisensorial interaction with the product is one of the factors that prevent e-commerce from becoming the first choice of customers, especially for certain categories of products. Virtual and augmented reality have been proposed as a means to compensate for the lack of sensorial involvement, thanks to features such as immersion, interactivity, and augmentation. We conducted a systematic literature review according to the PRISMA guidelines. Relevant studies published up to November 2024 were identified via Scopus, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Medline databases. Two main research trends emerged: the study of customers' behavioral response to purposeful sensory-enriched shopping digital environments, and the investigation of customers' behavior when the lack of sensorial stimulation, especially of touch, is compensated through the virtual augmentation of the product. Despite the potential implications of using virtual and augmented reality to improve the sensorial experience during e-shopping, this research field is still in its infancy. The limitations of the current studies are discussed, and a research agenda is proposed.