Enabling smart retail settings via mobile augmented reality shopping apps

•Benefits of mobile augmented reality apps for enabling smart retail are indicated.•Types of experiential value of mobile augmented reality shopping apps are presented.•Quantitative analyses of 272 shopping apps and large-scale survey data are discussed.•Suggested actions to leverage mobile augmented reality for smart retail are presented.

Retail settings are being challenged to become smarter and provide greater value to both consumers and retailers. An increasingly recognised approach having potential for enabling smart retail is mobile augmented reality (MAR) apps. In this research, we seek to describe and discover how, why and to what extent MAR apps contribute to smart retail settings by creating additional value to customers as well as benefiting retailers. In particular, by adopting a retail customer experience perspective on value creation, analysing the content of MAR shopping apps currently available, and conducting large-scale surveys on United States smartphone users representing early technology adopters, we assess level of use, experiential benefits offered, and retail consequences. Our findings suggest that take-up is set to go mainstream as user satisfaction is relatively high and their use provides systematic experiential benefits along with advantages to retailers. Despite some drawbacks, their use is positively associated with multiple retail consequences. MAR apps are seen as changing consumer behaviour and are associated with increasingly high user valuations of retailers offering them. Implications for more effective use to enable smart retail settings are discussed.