Open AccessCan consumers’ gamified, personalized, and engaging experiences with VR fashion apps increase in-app purchase intention by fulfilling needs?
Author(s) -
Oiyan Lau,
ChungWha Ki
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
fashion and textiles
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.457
H-Index - 13
ISSN - 2198-0802
DOI - 10.1186/s40691-021-00270-9
Subject(s) - avatar , personalization , competence (human resources) , autonomy , psychology , context (archaeology) , self determination theory , structural equation modeling , internet privacy , computer science , business , marketing , social psychology , human–computer interaction , paleontology , machine learning , political science , law , biology
While the development of virtual reality (VR) apps is trending among fashion retailers to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and promote consumers’ online shopping, less is understood about whether and the way these new VR apps increase consumers’ in-app purchase. This study was designed to address this issue by applying self-determination theory within the context of Taobao Life, a 3D avatar-based and game-featured virtual world on the Taobao app. Specifically, we investigated (1) whether the extent to which a VR fashion app provides consumers with a sense of gamified experience (H1: challenge, and H2: achievement), personalized experience (H3: avatar customization, and H4: avatar identification), and engaging experience (H5: social presence, and H6: social support) fulfills their competence, autonomy, and relatedness needs; (2) whether these intrinsic needs fulfill determine positive consumer behavioral intentions (H7: intention to continue to use VR apps, and H8: intention to make in-app purchase), and (3) whether the intention to continue to use VR apps leads to a positive in-app purchase intention (H9). We tested the above empirically by conducting an online survey via Dynata, and the dataset of 251 responses was analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings of our research provide theoretical and practical implications that can be applied in the fashion retail business.