The effects of retail environmental design elements in virtual reality (VR) fashion stores

ABSTRACT The main objective of this study is to understand the impacts of retail greenery and correlated color temperature in biophilic design on consumers’ emotions, perceptions (pleasure, arousal, perceived merchandise quality) and responses (satisfaction and purchase intentions) in virtual reality fashion stores. This study is a 2 × 2 experimental design. Retail greenery/non-retail greenery is a within-subjects design, while correlated color temperature (warm/cool) is a between-subjects design. Shopping orientations (utilitarian/hedonic) is examined as a moderator. 295 undergraduate US female students participated in this study. The results showed that consumers prefer a retail greenery application over a non-retail greenery application. Cool lighting creates higher arousal than warm lighting. There are significant interaction effects between a retail greenery application and correlated color temperature as well as moderating effects of shopping orientations (utilitarian/hedonic). Being the first to measure the combined effects of retail greenery and correlated color temperature on consumers’ responses in a 360-degree virtual reality fashion retail space, this study provides insights into how retailers strategically plan their use of biophilic design to improve the 3D Virtual Reality (VR) shopping experience.