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.