When AR-based phygital presentation helps new product adoption

Augmented reality (AR) is increasingly used as a phygital touchpoint for introducing new products, yet its effectiveness in facilitating new product adoption remains unclear. Across four studies, we show that AR-based product presentation influences purchase intention through outcome-oriented mental simulation, which reflects consumers' consideration of the anticipated benefits and final utility of product use. This effect depends on product innovativeness. For really new products, AR-based presentation increases outcome simulation and purchase intention because consumers need greater support to understand and imagine unfamiliar product outcomes. In contrast, for incrementally new products, AR-based presentation decreases both responses, as consumers can more readily infer product outcomes from existing category knowledge. These findings identify AR-based presentation as an early-stage, information-oriented phygital touchpoint, extend AR research by highlighting its information-disclosure function, and show that firms should deploy AR selectively according to the innovativeness of the product being introduced.