The Virtual Store: A New Shopping Channel That Generates Value and Well-Being for Gen Z Customers

Abstract

The increasing adoption of virtual reality in the retail sector has spurred academics and professionals alike to understand shopping experiences in virtual stores. Unlike existing studies that used this technology only as a research tool, this research considers the virtual store as a full-fledged shopping channel with multichannel or omnichannel logic. An experiment involving 193 respondents showed that the virtual store generates value and well-being for Gen Z customers, where value is positively or negatively determined by perceived ease of use, empowerment felt, perceived cognitive effort made, and perceived lack of privacy. The influence of these antecedents on the perceived value is more or less important, depending on the shopper's presence in the virtual store (through an avatar with full body versus hands only). Although the full-body avatar (n = 96) provides ease of use (when moving around the virtual store and selecting products), it diminishes the experience because it is perceived as less privacy compliant. In contrast, an avatar with hands only (n = 97) increases the empowerment felt during the shopping experience, even if customers believe that it demands more cognitive effort to apprehend the virtual store's operations.