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Intent to purchase from 3-D virtual environments: An exploratory study

Despite the challenging economy, online retail in the United States and western Europe is continuing to have double-digit growth. Regardless of retailer size, the Internet offers an affordable alternative to opening a brick-and-mortar store and provides innovative ways of doing business. However, the evolution of the Internet as a shopping channel is not without drawbacks. Online store lacks interactivity and fails to create the store ambience achieved in a physical store, which can detract from the overall shopping experience. Thus, to ensure success, retailers are exploring various avenues to create a deeply immersive online shopping experience. One such platform is the creation of stores in virtual worlds such as Second Life (SL). This virtual world represents a shared space with a 3-D graphical environment in which several users can simultaneously interact with each other and perform activities similar to those they perform in the real world. This study examined the main features of 3-D stores which could possibly attract and engage consumers in shopping in online 3-D virtual environments. Control and two-way communication influenced purchase intention on SL. Two-way communication influenced both control and the shopping enjoyment variable. Atmospherics influenced shopping enjoyment. Implications for academics as well as retailers have been provided.