IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES, AWE, AND THE EVOLUTION OF RETAIL IN THE METAVERSE

The blistering development of immersive technologies is producing a significant change of online customers to the metaverse, which forces retailers to modify their approaches in this new and evolving servicescape. In order to decipher this new retail paradigm, the current research will be based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model and the Theory of Feelings-as-Information. An abstracted model is developed and experimented that places immersive technological aspects as the independent variable, the state of awe as the central organism process, and the subsequent behavioural response as the dependent variable. In particular, the study examines how the complex and awe-related experience, which is operationalized by the six dimensions of vastness, need of accommodation, self-diminishment, altered time perception, connectedness, and physical feeling, leads to consumer willingness to pay, and the perceived value is the critical measure moderator. The results obtained after the online survey of 326 consumers were analysed intensively by the covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM). The results confirm that the six awe characteristics have a strong positive effect on perceived value and vastness, temporal distortion, and connectedness are found to be the strongest predictors, therefore, highlighting the relevance of expansive, absorbing, and socially rich virtual environments. Moreover, perceived value was confirmed to be an important mediator and a powerful direct antecedent of readiness to pay on metaverse-enabled retail services. These findings highlight the importance of the ability of the metaverse retail to turn awe-inspiring experiences into perceptions of consumer value in order to render the metaverse retail financially viable.