Unfolding the impacts of metaverse aspects on telepresence, product knowledge, and purchase intentions in the metaverse stores

The metaverse is a confluence of several technical breakthroughs that promotes social and economic engagement, resulting in a novel and immersive online purchasing experience. The main objective of this study is to investigate how metaverse attributes affect users' sense of telepresence, product knowledge and purchase intentions in the metaverse stores. This research provides a theoretical basis for understanding customer behavior in virtual stores by adapting the Stimulus Organism Response (S-O-R) model. The Partial Least Square Structural Equations Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was applied to analyze the data collected from 258 respondents via an online survey. Respondents were consumers who have actively engaged in the metaverse applications. Metaverse stimuli attributes (i.e., effectiveness, vividness, and interactivity) have a positive significant influence on metaverse organismic experience (i.e., telepresence). Additionally, metaverse telepresence has a significant positive influence on customers responses (i.e., perceived product knowledge, and purchase intentions). This study offers cutting-edge recommendations for tech giants and metaverse developers to facilitate consumers' buying behavior in metaverse stores.