Can Metaverse Retail lead to purchase intentions among the youth? A Stimulus-Organism-Response theory perspective

This study investigated the intention of youngsters to experiment with metaverse during their shopping experience. The study combined the Uses and Gratification Theory and Stimulus-Organism-Response theory to develop the conceptual model. The model was validated through an empirical study involving youngsters (N=270). The results show that the retail experience and metaverse application characteristics significantly impacted the organism components of hedonic and social gratification. However, features of retail experience characteristics and metaverse applications did not impact utilitarian gratification. Hedonic and social gratification significantly impacted the youngsters' intention to experiment metaverse during their shopping experience. Utilitarian gratification did not impact their shopping intentions, enabled through the metaverse experience. The study elucidates the implications for theory and retail practice benefiting consumers, metaverse retail app designers and influences retailers' marketing strategy.

I. Introduction

The global pandemic has paved the way for the growth of digital transformation across industries, and customer experience has become a high priority focus area. The uncertain and dynamic business environments made the companies look at differentiated customer experience, and, in this context, immersive technologies came into the spotlight. Augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) are enablers for creating a new platform for virtual and physical objects integration and thus providing unique customer experiences. It is important to note that improvements in hardware, portable and smart devices, and interactive technologies helped accelerate the development of the user experience landscape. The notion of purchase has changed over the years, and today customers purchase experiences from a product or service rather than buying a product or service. Business houses adopt these new-age technologies to drive efficiencies and reap the benefits of a substantial investment return. Technology-based experiences positively influence brand image, and hence there is much potential for exploiting these technologies to connect to customers [1].