A Comprehensive Review of Virtual Commerce Applications for the Metaverse: Open Issues, Challenges and Recommended Solution for Benchmarking

The metaverse, a virtual immersive space, has the potential to revolutionize shopping experiences. By converging digital and physical realities, the metaverse creates an interconnected network of 3D environments that simulate real-world experiences. This presents lucrative Virtual Commerce (v-commerce) opportunities, enabling businesses to engage consumers and enhance satisfaction. Consequently, selecting the optimal v-commerce solution is critical for organizations aiming to achieve success and maximize customer engagement. Researchers have explored various strategies to address the unique challenges and opportunities in developing robust v-commerce solutions, emphasizing their potential to optimize user experiences and engagement in this evolving digital environment. By evaluating distinct design attributes, prioritizing them effectively, and managing variability in user data, this modeling approach aligns closely with the principles of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). The primary objectives of this review paper are threefold. First, it aims to identify gaps, challenges, and unresolved issues in the existing literature on evaluating and benchmarking v-commerce applications for the metaverse. Second, it seeks to address a theoretical gap by proposing a novel decision-making framework that integrates the Ranking Alternatives based on Trace to Median Index (RATMI) and Fuzzy Weighted Zero Inconsistency (FWZIC) methods for evaluating and benchmarking v-commerce solutions. Third, it aims to summarize the common methods in the literature that are suitable for validating and evaluating the proposed framework. The results demonstrate that employing MCDM techniques provides an effective framework for evaluating metaverse v-commerce solutions. This paper offers valuable insights to decision-makers, researchers, technology developers in retail and e-commerce, and consultants seeking to leverage v-commerce solutions within the metaverse.