Retail has been undergoing a major transformation. While online shopping offers convenience, personalisation, and rich digital features, physical stores provide tangible experiences, human interaction, and immediacy. However, many brick-and-mortar stores struggle to compete with the seamless user experience and data-driven advantages of e-commerce — especially as consumer behaviour shifts toward mobile-first discovery and decision-making.

Extended Reality (XR), particularly mobile Augmented Reality (AR), creates an opportunity to combine the best of both worlds: bringing the strengths of online retail into physical environments and city shopping streets, while preserving the unique value of in-store experiences. The challenge is how XR can support the future of physical retail, making it more engaging, informative, and relevant for modern consumers as they move through cities and shops.

In this project, we are aiming to create prototypes of AR solutions for consumers to use in city environment. Let’s focus on the specialised stores where the added value of service is important and forget the stores selling bulk products.