Deciphering the evolution of metaverse - A techno-functional perspective in digital marketing

• The metaverse has disrupted the traditional marketing practices and it has potential to transform entire world of marketing activities with thrilling immersive experiences. • This study provides an analysis of evolving field of metaverse marketing and information systems (IS) using systematic literature review (SLR). • The clusters of the research illustrate that metaverse marketing encompassing consumer behaviour, consumer engagement, brand experience and virtual product design. • This study also reveals the emerging trends and gaps in literature that pave the ways for future research expansion in the metaverse marketing. • The results of this research provide valuable insights for the academicians and marketers by uncovering the existing research structures and future research prospects of metaverse marketing. The metaverse has disrupted the traditional marketing practices and it has potential to transform entire world of marketing activities with thrilling immersive experiences. This study provides an analysis of evolving field of metaverse marketing in the context of information systems using state of the art bibliometric and scientometric tools coupled with machine learning algorithms. Utilizing 257 documents from Scopus database that published between 1996 and 2024, this research maps and unveils the development of metaverse marketing from its inception and the role of information systems in its evolution. The analysis of literature resulted in five main emerging themes of the role of information systems in metaverse marketing research as User Experience, Customer engagement, Convergence of metaverse Technology, Design of virtual goods & experience and Global Social Interaction. The major sub-themes of the study are User Behaviors and Preferences, Branding on virtual environment, Virtual reality, Virtual wearables and Virtual Socialization. This study also reveals the emerging trends and gaps in literature that pave the ways for future research expansion in the information systems and metaverse marketing. Few of the important future research areas identified are understanding user experience, design of immersive customer engagement strategies, customer virtual presence and Security & privacy concerns of the users on metaverse platform.