How to Promote User Purchase in Metaverse? A Systematic Literature Review on Consumer Behavior Research and Virtual Commerce Application Design

Bingqing Shen,Jingzhi Guo,Linshuang Zhao,Peng Qin,Weiming Tan

doi:10.3390/app112311087

Bingqing Shen, Jingzhi Guo + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/app112311087

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Abstract

Virtual commerce applies immersive technology such as augmented reality and virtual reality into e-commerce to shift consumer perception from 2D product catalogs to 3D immersive virtual spaces. In virtual commerce, the alignment of application design paradigms and the factors influencing consumer behavior is paramount to promote purchase of products and services. The question of their relation needs to be answered, together with the possible improvement of application design. This paper used a systematic literature review approach to synthesize research on virtual commerce from both application design and consumer behavior research, considering the promotion of purchase in virtual commerce settings. Throughout the review, influential factors to purchase and preeminent design artifacts were identified. Then, the research gaps were discovered by mapping the design artifacts to the influential factors, which can inspire future research opportunities on the synergy of these two research directions. Moreover, the evolution of virtual commerce research along with multiple directions were discussed, including the suggestion of meta-commerce as a future trend.

Highlights

The first question aimed to construct a holistic view of consumer purchase in virtual commerce by unifying the theories applied in each behavior paper
The third question established a connection between design research and the influential factors in Q2 to identify how improvement on application design can promote purchase in virtual commerce through these factors
This paper studied the design of virtual commerce applications to promote purchase with a systematic literature review

Summary

Introduction

Immersive technology describes the technologies that simulate visual, auditory, haptic, and motion realness [6] alone the Reality–Virtuality continuum [27], which has evolved into diverse taxonomies, such as mediated reality [28], the visuo-haptic reality–virtuality continuum [29], and the EPI cube (EPI stands for technological embodiment, psychological presence, and behavioral interactivity) [21], to describe constantly emerging multisensory technologies In this continuum, VR is well-accepted as a completely synthesized virtual environment [6,21], but the definitions of AR and MR are not settled. Some researchers recently proposed extended reality (XR) to encompass AR, MR, and VR [32,33]

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