Can traditional retail physical shops employ wearable mixed reality in-store?

Purpose The quality of the consumer experience with mixed reality (MR) technology in physical retail environments remains underexplored. The study explores the quality of consumer MR head-mounted display experiences in traditional physical shops and proposes a theoretical framework for understanding space-user behaviours in MR-enabled physical environments. Design/methodology/approach This study uses triangulation and grounded theory to empirically investigate the implementation of an MR Product Configurator app in a UK fashion shop. It derives managerial and design implications for developing MR-enabled shops. Findings The findings suggest that retailers carefully design ergonomic MR environments to improve accessibility of user experience and facilitate adoption. The results address eight factors for interior design (colour, lighting, privacy, safety, sound, merchandise display, spatial dimension, and spatial layout) and four factors for MR system design (interaction design, UI design, system accessibility, and technological stability) for design recommendations to enhance the MR accessibility of physical retail environments. Originality/value An MR customer experience framework is proposed through 68 consumers who adopted an MR headset in-store. The framework depicts the quality of customer experience and current challenges. By addressing these problems, the practical implementation of MR retail may enhance the quality of the experience and accelerate the immersive digitalisation of physical shops.