Purpose: The transition to omnichannel retail is the recognized future of retail, which uses digital technologies (e.g. augmented reality shopping assistants) to enhance the customer shopping experience. However, retailers struggle with the implementation of such technologies in brick-and-mortar stores. Against this background, the present study investigates the impact of a smartphone-based augmented reality shopping assistant application, which uses personalized recommendations and explainable artificial intelligence features on customer shopping experiences.Design/methodology/approach: The authors follow a design science research approach to develop a shopping assistant application artifact, evaluated by means of an online experiment (n = 252), providing both qualitative and quantitative data.Findings: Results indicate a positive impact of the augmented reality shopping assistant application on customers' perception of brick-and-mortar shopping experiences. Based on the empirical insights this study also identifies possible improvements of the artifact.Research limitations/implications: This study's assessment is limited to an online evaluation approach. Therefore, future studies should test actual usage of the technology in brick-and-mortar stores. Contrary to the suggestions of established theories (i.e. technology acceptance model, uses and gratification theory), this study shows that an increase of shopping experience does not always convert into an increase in the intention to purchase or to visit a brick-and-mortar store. Additionally, this study provides novel design principles and ideas for crafting augmented reality shopping assistant applications that can be used by future researchers to create advanced versions of such applications.Practical implications: This paper demonstrates that a shopping assistant artifact provides a good opportunity to enhance users' shopping experience on their path-to-purchase, as it can support customers by providing rich information (e.g. explainable recommendations) for decision-making along the customer shopping journey.Originality/value: This paper shows that smartphone-based augmented reality shopping assistant applications have the potential to increase the competitive power of brick-and-mortar retailers.

To stay competitive against e-commerce, many retailers started to adopt a digital retail strategy, leveraging a myriad of online and offline touchpoints to increase their customer experience and, as a result, their sales. However, currently, no guidelines exist on how digital retailers can identify, evaluate, and influence sales impacting touchpoints along the customer journey. Hence, this study derives key elements of a conversion rate optimization framework, which can be used to increase sales of a digital retailer. Additionally, the derived framework is tested with the Austrian subsidiary of an international sports appeal and equipment retailer giving insights into its practical applicability. Results indicate that the developed framework can indeed be used to identify sales influencing touchpoints, which can be altered by specific marketing actions to increase sales of a digital retailer.

High-quality luxury products cater to a specific group of consumers due to their durability and the value attached to them. Counterfeiting luxury products has resulted in economic losses for both the producers and consumers. The market for counterfeit luxury products has continued to grow due to the difficulty in authenticating genuine luxury products. The traditional system of verification largely depends on the expert use of specialized equipment for visually inspecting physical luxury products and their associated certificates. This conventional process of authenticating luxury products is expensive, slow, and not easily accessible to consumers. Hence, there is a need for a digital verification approach for luxury products. Blockchain provides the potential for providing traceable and immutable information about a given luxury product. The focus of this paper is to develop a blockchain decentralized application (DApp) for authenticating luxury products in the class of luxury accessories such as jewelry across their respective lifecycles. To achieve this, qualitative analytics is applied to identify useful features for the digital authentication of luxury products. Blockchain requirement engineering modelling is then applied to explore the use of blockchain technologies to realize the features that guarantee transparency in the ownership and use of luxury products. Furthermore, this paper explores the existing blockchain technologies for realizing and implementing the developed requirements of the authentication DApp for luxury products. The selected blockchain technology stack is applied in prototyping authentication systems for luxury products. The implemented platform is simulated to demonstrate the operations carried out in authenticating luxury products.