The increasing adoption of three-dimensional (3D) virtual reality technologies in business practices requires an interdisciplinary research approach to study their effect. In this paper we investigate the effects of different 3D online store layouts on user perceptions in the e-retailing context. We build on recent research on store atmosphere that classifies store layouts in 3D environments as “avant-garde”, “warehouse”, “pragmatic”, “boutique” and “department”. Reflecting the dual identity of individuals as both consumers visiting virtual stores and users interacting with graphical user interfaces, we employ key constructs from both the marketing and the information systems literature to build our research model. The study measures how Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Merchandise Quality Perception and Store Perception vary across the distinct store layouts. We employ a laboratory experiment in the apparel industry to test our model. Our results show that the layouts lead to different perceptions, although the consumers’ Shopping Motivation does not moderate this effect. Building on the differences found on store layout effects on user/consumer behavior in the 3D online context, the paper discusses relevant research and practical implications.

在商业实践中越来越多地采用三维 (3D) 虚拟现实技术需要跨学科的研究方法来研究它们的效果。在本文中，我们研究了不同 3D 在线商店布局对电子零售环境中用户感知的影响。我们以最近对商店氛围的研究为基础，将 3D 环境中的商店布局分类为“前卫”、“仓库”、“务实”、“精品”和“部门”。反映个人作为访问虚拟商店的消费者和与图形用户界面交互的用户的双重身份，我们采用营销和信息系统文献中的关键结构来构建我们的研究模型。该研究衡量了感知有用性、感知易用性、商品质量感知和商店感知因不同的商店布局而异。我们在服装行业采用实验室实验来测试我们的模型。我们的结果表明，布局会导致不同的感知，尽管消费者的购物动机并没有缓和这种影响。基于 3D 在线环境中商店布局对用户/消费者行为的影响，本文讨论了相关研究和实际意义。