Paper Details

Name: Esha Jain , Sarita Arora
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Volume-13, Issue-1 (January-June)
Page Number: 282-295
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20410149

Augmented Reality has redefined online retail as it enables consumers to visualize and
contextualize products in their own physical environment before purchase. Telepresence and vividness are two theoretical constructs frequently used in AR shopping literature, often together and sometimes interchangeably. The conceptual paper argues that treating these two constructs as the same hides their different psychological processes and effects on consumer trust. Drawing on Steuer‟s (1992) media theory and Lombard and Ditton‟s (1997) work on presence and recent AR marketing research, the paper conceptually highlights how telepresence (the feeling of being there) is separate from vividness (the sensory richness of a mediated environment). We propose that vividness acts as a stimulus that shapes the level of
telepresence, while also influencing consumer trust through separate cognitive and emotional processes. The paper presents five theoretical propositions that explain how each construct builds trust differently. It also identifies key boundary conditions, including product type, consumer technology readiness, and depth of AR interaction, and discusses their implications for AR retailing theory and practice. This paper contributes by addressing a long-standing theoretical confusion in AR consumer behaviour research and offering a simple framework for the future studies.