The effects of interface factors and store environment on consumers’ purchase and revisit intention in an online virtual reality store

Abstract

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has become a fast emerging industry and a significant global economic force. Virtual reality commerce (vr-commerce), where traditional e-commerce and traditional offline commerce are converged, is a promising technology and becoming more popular but there is still lack of research on relationships between principal functional and non-functional interface factors toward consumers’ purchase and revisit intention in an online VR store. This study employed laboratory survey for data collection and structural equation modeling for data analyses. The results from this research suggest that all identified foundation factors, namely web quality, telepresence and store environment, significantly drive consumers’ purchase and revisit intention. Web quality and telepresence factors contribute more than store environment. Web quality could induce informativeness and perceived usefulness; telepresence could induce perceived usefulness, informativeness and enjoyment; and store environment can induce consumers’ perceived usefulness and enjoyment. It is expected that the research will be a major theoretical piece to fill in the literature gap in VR-commerce by proving a complete and parsimonious framework and a major contribution in the practical arena by providing a concrete guidelines for practitioners in VR store.