The Serial Mediating Role of Customer Engagement and Attitude in the Relationship Between Augmented Reality and Purchase Intention in Furniture E-Retail

Abstract

Augmented reality (AR) has emerged as a transformative interactive technology in online furniture retailing, allowing consumers to visualize products within their own physical space prior to purchase. Despite the growing adoption of AR-enabled applications such as IKEA Place, empirical understanding of the psychological mechanisms that translate AR exposure into purchase behavior remains fragmented (Ramdani et al., 2022; Khirbat & Sriram, 2025). Grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework and the Technology Acceptance Model, this study conceptualizes how AR usage shapes consumer purchase intention in furniture e-retail through the serial mediating roles of customer engagement and attitude. It is proposed that AR characteristics such as interactivity, vividness, novelty and informativeness act as external stimuli that first heighten consumer engagement, defined as cognitive, affective and behavioral absorption with the AR interface, which subsequently cultivates a favorable attitude toward the AR-enabled shopping experience, which in turn drives purchase intention (Lau & Tang, 2025; Yang & Lin, 2024). A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design is proposed, employing structured questionnaires administered to consumers who have used AR furniture applications, with data analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and bootstrapped serial mediation analysis. The paper synthesizes more than thirty peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2026 to build the conceptual model and hypotheses. Findings are expected to confirm that engagement and attitude sequentially and significantly mediate the AR-purchase intention relationship, extending prior single-mediator models. The study contributes theoretically and practically by guiding furniture retailers on designing AR features that engage consumers so as to convert virtual interaction into actual purchase. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.