Shopping in virtual reality: a study on consumers’ shopping experience in a stereoscopic virtual reality

The popularity of home-based stereoscopic television provides researchers and practitioners with possibilities of bringing stereoscopic virtual reality (StereoVR) at consumers’ home. To further the investigation on the potential development of applying StereoVR in retailing, this research focuses on understanding consumers’ shopping experiences in this new platform. The research team believes that the use of StereoVR has potentials to become a new arena for interactive business. To explore these potential uses of technology in retailing, the team designed and built a StereoVR, called “FutureShop,” for implementing a virtual fashion retailing practices as well as collecting consumers’ responses for further development. Participants are asked to complete a shopping process from product selection to purchase in FutureShop. The factors examined in this research included the consumers’ purchase intention, interactive shopping and hedonic shopping experience. The findings and implications suggest that the StereoVR can make a significant contribution in creating more interactive experiences for apparel retailing by enhancing consumers’ hedonic shopping experiences in the StereoVR.