Does the locomotion technique matter in an immersive virtual store environment? – Comparing motion-tracked walking and instant teleportation

Immersive virtual reality shopping environments may use a variety of locomotion techniques. Currently the most prominent are instant teleportation and motion-tracked walking. Motion-tracked walking more closely mimics natural shopping behaviour as it allows a shopper to physically walk through the virtual store; however, it requires a larger space and has design and cost implications. Instant teleportation is likely to be cheaper and to enable larger store formats; yet it is unknown whether the choice of instant teleportation results in different in-store behaviour by shoppers. Our research examines whether instant teleportation provides a feasible design alternative to motion-tracked walking by determining whether it does result in altered shopper behaviour. Using a split sample experiment in a purpose-built immersive VR convenience store, we compare shoppers’ emotional states (engagement, excitement and stress, measured through electroencephalography), purchase behaviour metrics, and store coverage (represented by heat maps) between motion-tracked walking and instant teleportation locomotion techniques. Results demonstrate that the absence of physical walking had no impact on emotional states or the investigated shopping outcomes. While instant teleportation led to some skipped shelf sections, there was no impact observed on the number of unplanned purchases. To the extent that the naturalism of immersive VR relies on proprioceptive engagement or embodied cognition, this appears to be adequately supported by upper body movements that do not require physical walking. These findings provide fresh insights for the design of Virtual Reality shopping environments for market research or future online-retailing platforms.