Consumers make use of their senses to gather sensory information from their environment and make product evaluation and purchase decisions. But when the evaluation task is complex, the environmentally available sensory stimulations are not enough to help consumers decide. Consumers extend thus their sensory perception by creating mental representations of the senses for which there is no real stimulation, called mental imageries. The effects of mental imagery on consumer behavior are mitigated. There is, however, a consensus that the more vivid the imagery created is, the stronger would be its effects on consumer behavior. Vividness, which is the ability to represent an object in a clear real-like form, plays a pivotal role in shaping mental imageries effects. While in a non-digital world, imageries are purely imagined and their vividness depends only on the capacity of the individual to recall enough information to create a real-like representation of the sensation, in the digital world, AR and VR enable consumers to have a digital representation of the imagined sensation which increases vividness and engagement. AR and VR extend the consumer’s sensory perception abilities by providing real-like representations of the imagined sensations. IKEA and L’Oréal are using VR technologies to let customers try how a furniture fits within a space or how a makeup looks like on an individual’s face by offering digital representations of these spaces and faces. The use of AR and VR in sensory marketing nonetheless faces many challenges. For instance, perceived technology fluidity, perceived realism, the sensory power of AR/VR, the impacts of culture, of age, of education, and cognitive load and visual saturation are some of the challenges AR/VR must deal with to get successful sensory applications of these technologies. We don’t know exactly how these factors influence the effects of AR and VR on consumer behavior.

The primary goal of this special issue is to investigate AR and VR challenges, opportunities, and contributions to sensory marketing while considering the theoretical and practical requirements for the appropriate use of these technologies in sensory marketing.

Types of articles welcomed: Original research articles, review articles, and case studies.

Through this special issue, we aim to advance knowledge regarding the use of AR and VR in sensory marketing. We welcome researchers from marketing, psychology, neuroscience, and computer disciplines to provide interdisciplinary perspectives on the challenges and benefits of the use of AR/VR in sensory marketing. Your contributions will play a crucial role in advancing knowledge in this field.