The Impact of Avatar Presence on Consumer Behavior in VR Environments

Summary

This set of two studies, recently published on the Journal of Advertising Research’s website, investigates the impact of retail store employee avatar presence on consumer behavior within virtual reality environments. Not much research has investigated avatars in this context and what influence they may have on consumer attitudes and behavior.

This study duo reveals that consumers experience aversive responses to employee avatar presence in embarrassing shopping settings, such as the purchase of condoms or adult diapers. It also demonstrates that employee avatars decrease consumers' purchase behavior, including time and money spent on a purchase in embarrassing VR contexts. Consumers are also less likely to recall the brand of an embarrassing product.