Consumer Reactions in a Realistic Virtual Shop
Anne-Cécile Jeandrain · Journal of Interactive Advertising · 2001
The author examines the impacts of immersion in a virtual shop and its impact on consumer behaviour. Intuitively, consumers should prefer a immersive virtual shop because of its aestheticism and more realistic and natural look. However, results from an exploratory study demonstrate that consumer reactions depend primarily on their buying style (experiential or utilitarian). The experientials, i.e. persons who consider shopping as a recreation, prefer shopping in a realistic virtual shop. In contrast, the utilitarians, i.e. persons who consider shopping as a task, dislike this kind of shop because of its lack of convenience. Therefore, for retailers, providing realistic immersive experience to experiential consumers is a very interesting way to differentiate from competitors.