Exploring the Potential of Virtual Reality Shopping for Furniture : A Comparative Study with Web-based Retail

Abstract: Today there are two main ways of shopping; on a website or in a physical store, and each of them comes with its own benefits and downsides. A prototype for a store in virtual reality (VR) was created to take advantage of the unique aspects of VR, it created a shopping experience that is an improvement over web stores and has some advantages over physical stores too. According to studies done regarding visual search, 3D information such as stereoscopy can make visual search easier. This is something that was taken advantage of when creating the prototype for this work, by implementing a unique navigation and product search system. The furniture are displayed in virtual miniature showrooms, which the user can transport themselves into. By selecting a piece of furniture, alternative furniture are displayed in a grid, which can be selected to swap out the previously selected piece of furniture. This means that the user can inspect each piece of furniture in a realistic setting and scale. The grid also can be used to visualize information depending on two parameters. By taking advantage of the third dimension in VR, the value based on these parameters is visualized by the placement in height of each piece of furniture. The testing compared this VR prototype to the IKEA web store, by having the test subjects do three tasks in both mediums. Data was collected by using a questionnaire and a SAM scale. The VR store had a significantly higher valence compared to the web store, and most test subjects responded that it was likely that they would consider using a VR store over a web store. From this, it can be concluded that the VR store had an enhanced user experience compared to the web store. It was not possible to draw any conclusions regarding visual search when comparing the VR store and the web store, because the results were not conclusive enough. The test subjects found it easier to make decisions in the VR store, especially when using two parameters. This work has shown that a VR store can be created which is preferable to a web store in many ways. It can be more fun and engaging, and enable things that are only possible in VR, like sorting in three dimensions. It can also successfully incorporate some of the best qualities of retail stores, like the physical inspection of products.