Factors Affecting the Intention to Use Virtual Stores: Perspectives of Consumers in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Companies have explored various forms of virtual reality (VR) shopping, yet what is known about the user adoption behavior of VR apps is minimal and research into VR shopping from a user acceptance perspective is limited. This study investigates the factors that affect the intention to use VR for online shopping through undergoing a virtual shopping experience in the VR app. This is an exploratory study using a quantitative methodology. The findings indicate that telepresence, attitude, perceived control (PC), satisfaction, hedonic motivation (HM), and perceived usefulness (PU) are direct determinants of intention to use, whereas perceived security risk has no effect. Moreover, PEOU, PU, PC, and telepresence are indirect determinants of intention to use. This research is valuable for its identification of the determinants that can affect the adoption of VR in online shopping. This study helps store owners to understand what features will enable a successful implementation of virtual stores (VSs). This study has several limitations. First, the study was conducted using a convenience sample, making it difficult to generalize the results to the whole population. In terms of method, the study was entirely quantitative, using a questionnaire entirely consisting of close-ended questions, so participants were limited in their response options. The final limitation is in the scope of the research, which covered the perceptions of consumers only, while employees’ and ICT experts’ perspectives were not considered. In light of these limitations, this study allows some suggestions for future research directions to be made. (a) The perspectives of employees and ICT experts could be included so that more factors will be generated. (b) Future research could use different methodologies such as mixed methods to gain a deeper understanding of the responses. (c) A longitudinal study could be designed to address any developments occurring in VS features, as e-commerce is continually being developed.