Does metaverse fidelity matter? Testing the impact of fidelity on consumer responses in virtual retail stores

Abstract

The future of retailing takes consumers to the metaverse. Yet, how these novel shopping experiences will look and feel remains largely unknown. Experts predict immersive metaverse shopping experiences will help build even deeper connections with customers. We conducted a virtual reality (VR) experiment (N = 127) into the effect of metaverse fidelity on consumer responses to shopping (vs. browsing) for groceries in a virtual retail store. Our results suggest that metaverse fidelity has no general effect on consumer responses. However, after browsing the VR supermarket, repeat store visit intentions of male customers were significantly lower in the high (vs. low) fidelity condition, whereas female customers responded positively. This finding suggests fidelity to generate goal-specific responses that are also contingent on customers’ gender, underscoring the contextual sensitivity of consumer responses in future metaverse shopping experiences.