Furnishing your home? The impact of voice assistant avatars in virtual reality shopping: A neurophysiological study

Abstract

This study provides insights into the informational cues consumers use in virtual reality (VR)-based retail shopping experiences. The aim of the study is to identify the number and type (extrinsic versus intrinsic) of informational cues that most attract consumers' visual attention, and that are most important in their purchase decision-making in a VR store, with special emphasis on the role of voice assistant (VA) avatars. A sample of 152 Spanish consumers participated in a laboratory-based 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment. The study's main stimulus was a recreation, in both 2D and VR, of a living room in a home. The participants were asked to view the recreation using either a computer screen (2D) or a head-mounted display (HMD). Clickstream data, neurophysiological measures (eye-tracking and GSR) and self-reported measures were used to test the hypotheses. We found that consumers used more informational cues in the product choice process in the 2D online store than in the VR store, but that the VR store generated higher flow state; that the type of cue used depended on the type of platform and that the presence of VA avatars did not influence the number of informational cues consumers used but made them pay more visual attention to the products, and evoked higher arousal.