With the increasing popularity and attention towards virtual stores, the present study examines how consumers' perception of spatial and human crowdedness affects consumers' behavioral and attitudinal intention to shop at the virtual store through positive emotional arousals. Using two between-subject experiments (crowdedness: low spatial x high; low human x high), 171 participants were randomly assigned to each condition. The results demonstrated highly crowded virtual space with more merchandise creates a consumer’s positive emotional arousal, which leads to a positive attitude and satisfaction. Further, consumers perceive positive social crowdedness (i.e., when other shoppers are present) develops excitement among consumers who may entice positive attitude and satisfaction. Findings suggest that retailers should develop stimulating virtual stores.

Sustainability issue has received growing attention from various stakeholders. To engage more people to participate in sustainable actions, the United Nations has promoted #actnow campaign since 2019. Among various sustainability initiatives and approaches, the UN’s #actnow campaign focuses on food and fashion sustainability since these two industries encompass various sustainability issues from production and post-consumption. By analyzing Twitter's big data, the study findings demonstrate that negative sentiment messages are powerful in driving the public’s engagement in social media message dissemination. The findings suggest that practitioners may use assertive and strong voice messages to lead consumers’ participation in sustainable message dissemination.