How virtual reality affects consumer choice

With high-immersive virtual reality (VR) systems approaching mass markets, companies are seeking to better understand how consumers behave when shopping in VR. A key feature of high-immersive VR environments is that they can create a strong illusion of reality to the senses, which could substantiall...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business research Vol. 117; pp. 219 - 231
Main Authors: Meißner, Martin, Pfeiffer, Jella, Peukert, Christian, Dietrich, Holger, Pfeiffer, Thies
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier Inc 01.09.2020
Subjects:
Conjoint analysis
Price-sensitivity
Satisfaction
Variety-seeking
Virtual reality
Conjoint analysis
Price-sensitivity
Variety-seeking
Virtual reality
Satisfaction
ISSN:0148-2963, 1873-7978
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:With high-immersive virtual reality (VR) systems approaching mass markets, companies are seeking to better understand how consumers behave when shopping in VR. A key feature of high-immersive VR environments is that they can create a strong illusion of reality to the senses, which could substantially change consumer choice behavior compared to online shopping. We compare consumer choice from virtual shelves in two environments: (i) a high-immersive VR environment using a head-mounted display and hand-held controllers with (ii) a low-immersive environment showing products as rotatable 3-D models on a desktop computer screen. We use an incentive-aligned choice experiment to investigate how immersion affects consumer choice. Our investigation comprises three key choice characteristics: variety-seeking, price-sensitivity, and satisfaction with the choice made. The empirical results provide evidence that consumers in high-immersive VR choose a larger variety of products and are less price-sensitive. Choice satisfaction, however, did not increase in high-immersive VR.
ISSN:0148-2963
1873-7978
DOI:10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.004