Can a virtual supermarket bring realism into the lab? Comparing shopping behavior using virtual and pictorial store representations to behavior in a physical store

An exploratory investigation of shopper behaviour in an immersive virtual reality store

“…On shelf positioning, the distribution of purchase rates across vertical shelves shows patterns that are congruent with previous research in physical environments, indicating a strong preference for eye level (Dreze, Hoch, & Purk, 1994;Valenzuela, Raghubir, & Mitakakis, 2013). Similar responses to display characteristics have also been found for desktop-operated simulations (Van Herpen et al, 2016); however, immersive VSS has the potential to lead to more authentic shopper responses compared with desktop systems for two reasons. First, factoring in the physical movement and proprioceptive sense that is stimulated by iVR VSS hardware, these systems enhance perceived telepresence (Slater & Steed, 2000;Stassen & Smets, 1997) during shelf inspection, leading to more authentic shopper behaviour (Waterlander et al, 2015).…”

“…Accordingly, academic interest has been focused on this sector of retailing (Girard, Trapp, Pinar, Gulsoy, & Boyt, 2017). This has included research to validate PL shares in desktop VSSs; Campo et al (1999) and Van Herpen et al (2016) both confirmed that, for the tested categories, PL shares in a VSS resembled the physical benchmarks. The current study examines PL shares in five product categories in an immersive VSS.…”

Dynamic Context Sensory Testing–A Proof of Concept Study Bringing Virtual Reality to the Sensory Booth

“…They found that, while initial weight loss was significantly greater in the face‐to‐face weigh‐ins, weight maintenance was greater in VR. When exploring shopping behaviors, Van Herpen, Van Den Broek, Van Trijp, and Yu () compared 2‐D pictures of a supermarket to a “virtual supermarket” created on a PC with three 42‐inch LCD screens arranged to create a 180° view, allowing the test “shoppers” to explore this environment via a predefined shopping route. Panelists within the simulated environment behaved more similarly to how they would in a physical store than with pictures for a number of (but not all) products.…”

“…Many researchers have studied the influence of environment or context on food's liking or sensory properties. While this has usually involved the use of photographs or videos, the advent of VR may allow a more immersive, dynamically changing context where one can explore the environment freely, without following a predetermined route (as in Van Herpen et al., ) and/or even recruiting other sensory modalities for this immersion. Bangcuyo et al.…”

Transparantie in de varkensketen

“…Men kan hierbij ook de daadwerkelijke betaling van de participant voor het gekozen product binnen de onderzoeksopzet betrekken. Hierbij kan worden opgemerkt dat met de opkomst van de mogelijkheden van virtuele omgevingen ten behoeve van consumentenonderzoek, er ook meer aandacht is gekomen voor de overkomsten en verschillen tussen de onderzoeksresultaten die door virtuele en fysieke omgevingen verkregen worden (zie bijvoorbeeld Van Herpen et al, 2016). De bovengenoemde suggesties voor toekomstig onderzoek zouden, in samenhang met de al gevonden resultaten, een bijdrage aan de kennis over de overeenkomsten en verschillen kunnen geven.…”