The advent of virtual reality and augmented reality technologies have pushed user’s expectation for online experience to a new level. Social connections via texts alone can no longer satisfy appetite for the reality of virtual interaction. Subsequently, the metaverse is invented to reimagine the way people work, play, socialize and live online (Xi et al., 2022). Metaverse is “the post-reality universe, a perpetual and persistent multiuser environment merging physical reality with digital virtuality” (Mystakidis, 2022). The speed at which the Metaverse has evolved both in definition (first coined in 1992 by science fiction author Neal Stephenson) and research but also in practice, has been phenomenal. Earlier visions of what the Metaverse would be were limited to gaming (for example, Roblox, Fortnite, Zepeto), and gaming is still considered to be the most popular service in the Metaverse (Shin, 2022), where reality is replicated through the creation of a virtual 3D space including avatars interacting and communicating. This current immersive extended reality is a space where people not only can play, but work, learn, socialize, buy, and much more (Hollensen, Kotler, & Opresnik, 2022). It could be fair to assume that the potential of Metaverse being much more than simply gaming, took off after Mark Zuckerberg’s continuous references to the metaverse throughout 2020 and 2021, and the subsequent change of Facebook’s name to Meta in 2021. By 2026, it is estimated that 25% of people worldwide will spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse for digital activities, including shopping, working, entertainment and social interaction (Johnson, 2022).

The body of knowledge from psychology has been useful to marketing for understanding consumer minds and behaviors (Jia et al., 2018). Daily activities, such as movie watching, grocery shopping, online shopping, drinking coffee (with friends or alone), and making an in-app purchases on social media, all involve consumption which is affected by the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of the decision maker (i.e., consumers). But when the ways in which we sense and interact with the world change, how does it shift our ways of communicating with each other and the processes of forming perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors?

The metaverse has become a trendy topic for both academics and practitioners in recent years. While the metaverse is still in a developmental stage, it is anticipated that it will bring significant changes to the existing paradigm in marketing, information system, psychology and many other disciplines (Dwivedi et al., 2022)

A ‘brand’ metaverse is a virtual space where customers experience the brand via digital avatars. With the advancement of augmented and virtual reality technologies, a brand metaverse is an important medium for communicating the brand with customers. In this study, we focus on the resemblance between a customer’s self and his/her avatar (i.e., self-avatar resemblance) in the brand metaverse and examine its influence on brand attitude. Prior studies examine self-avatar resemblance exclusively in non-brand-related virtual gaming platforms and test its effect on identity perception and immersion in the platforms. However, few studies probe the extent to which self-avatar resemblance influences customers' exploration in a brand metaverse and their attitude toward the brand. We fill this research gap by uncovering the positive effects of self-avatar resemblance on brand attitude and purchase intentions. Moreover, we proffer that the customers’ engagement toward the brand metaverse platform mediates the relationship between self-avatar resemblance and brand attitude. In addition, based on the interactive nature of metaverse, we hypothesize copresence―the number of avatars exploring the brand metaverse at the same time―to be a moderator, which strengthens the mediation. We conduct an experiment using a fashion brand’s virtual world positioned in a popular metaverse platform. In this experiment, participants create an avatar and freely roam around in the brand metaverse with their avatars. By reviewing the screen recording of each participant’s brand exploration in the metaverse, we measure self-avatar resemblance and other constructs. We also collect responses from questionnaires designed to measure attitudinal and behavioral variables. With the accumulated data, we test the hypotheses using partial least square structural equation model and find the results largely consistent with the hypotheses. With the findings, we provide important and interesting implications to marketing practitioners considering and doing ‘metaverse marketing.’

Sustainability rears its head in the current online marketing and virtual store -research. Sustainability considerations involve pro-environmental-, social- and economic values as well as future generations and continuous innovation (Hanss and Böhm, 2012). Central in the sustainability research is sustainable consumer behavior, which has been found to be subject of intensions varying across different types of consumers, issues, and product categories (O’Rourke and Ringer, 2016). Determining consumers’ general egoistic, altruistic and biospheric values (e.g., De Groot and Steg 2008; Steg et al., 2014) have resulted quite complex and not always so generalizable structural models for sustainable behavior. While value -research has been dominant in determining the sustainability intensions and eventual behavior, there are relatively little solid theories and understating about different psychological processes behind sustainable behavior. Furthermore, the consideration of multiple sustainable consumer behavior outcomes seems to be limited, which can also hamper the development of models and theories (see e.g., Hulland and Houston 2021).

In this research, we investigate the effectiveness of bleed brand logos for the metaverse shopping travelers from the viewpoint of a container metaphor. Bleed is a technique that enlarges parts of a logo while omitting others. Many firms use a bleed logo to improve visibility and allow the metaverse shopping travelers to retrieve the brand-related information quickly. Regarding the issue, we conducted three studies and found that in a metaverse space not filled with other traveler avatars, travelers would feel that the environment is in their control, and they could enjoy the experience. In this instance, firms could earn a high brand evaluation with a high bleed logo. However, when the metaverse space is crowded with other traveler avatars and, thus, travelers experience negative feelings brought up by their sense of being out of control, a high bleed logo results in their low evaluations of the brand because shopping travelers feel like some contents in the logo are out of the frame.

There are a lot of brand experience in Metaverse. For example, we can participate in Samsung Galaxy Fan party, UC Berkeley graduation class, and even Ralph Lauren store in Metaverse. When the consumers experience such events in Metaverse, they have to use their avatar by making a user name. They have the option of using either their real or fictional name in Metaverse. There are two types of avatar in Metaverse. First, they can use actual self-avatar by using their real name. Second, they can create totally new avatars using made up name. The name is one of the symbols of self. Therefore, we can easily predict that consumer experience with avatar will affect the consumer perception differently. Which type of avatar will then enhance the brand engagement? Results show that the consumer experience with avatars affected brand attitudes differently. Also, the consumer's experience with avatars based on their actual images in the Metaverse affected the positive brand attitude. This study suggests that Metaverse avatars can also let people interact with themselves and with each other in parasocial ways. This study examines the role of avatar in virtual world; consumers experience with avatar can provide useful implications in terms of digital transformation.

The present study choose to conduct consumer behavioral research in Metaverse situation, explores factors that influence consumer shopping enjoyment and purchase intention from product, service and technology perceptive. The research team gathered the primary data through questionnaire subjecting to Chinese consumers (n=300) who know about TaoBao future city which themes on virtual buying in Metaverse. In addition, structural equation modeling is employed to examine the hypothesized relationship among the variables. The result shows that all the driving factors positive effects consumer shopping enjoyment and then influence purchase intention positively. The finding is significantly fundamental to establish theoretical framework future about virtual shopping in Metaverse, and help marketers realize how to set virtual stores in Metaverse to enhance consumer shopping experience so that they could improve consumer purchase intention in the context.

This study explored dominant topics about the metaverse discussed in Twitter and the sentiments in each topic in the case of Decentraland using topic modeling and sentiment analysis. The appraisal theory of emotion and motivation theory were used to explain why positive or negative sentiments were expressed toward specific topics. The majority of topics were related to economic benefits such as coins, NFTs, tokens, estate, land, and spaces or socializing with others at specific events. Many of them included predominantly positive sentiments because consumers appraised them as motive consistent. This serves as an important implication for marketers and developers in the metaverse that they need to focus more on these features so that consumers can interact with the motive-consistent features and thus have positive emotions.

Luxury, which can be defined as 'high standard goods’ provide symbolic, emotional values based on scarcity and exceptional quality. In reference to previous studies, luxury fashion product is classified differently from other general products because of their differentiated quality, design, and premium price. There are a few stereotypes about people who wear luxury fashion products which are known as high social status, materialism, fashion involvement, and sustainability. As these various perceptions of luxury fashion consumption are established among people, this study intends to examine how these perceptions are formed when people wear luxury fashion products from an observer’s perspective and explore the effects of perceptions on emotions, and evaluations regarding the wearer. Lastly, within the formation of perception, emotion, and evaluation of luxury fashion wearers, this study aims to examine the differences between the real world and the metaverse.

Since the impact of COVID-19, the tourism and hospitality (T&H) practitioners have become increasingly aware of the crucial role of technology. The metaverse, which combines multiple emerging technologies, has become a hot topic that can take customers' experience in T&H to the next level. Previous research has already indicated that industrial practitioners should begin to consider business transformation to face the era of the metaverse. The metaverse is a continuum from the digital worlds to the physical worlds, with the convergence of physical and virtual worlds in the middle. Digital worlds include mirror worlds that simulate and reflect the real world and the virtual native, an innovative digital world. The digital twin has been mentioned as being created for destinations, hotels, and resorts, relying on the internet of things (IoT) as a crucial component of metaverse technology. However, previous studies have rarely explored the role of the IoT in the metaverse, particularly for T&H customers' metaverse experience. Therefore, this study aims to explore the role of the IoT in customers' metaverse experience in T&H and provide a clear picture for industrial practitioners to take steps into the metaverse. Exploratory research was adopted, including document analysis, literature review, and in-depth interviews with twelve international metaverse-related company experts. Moreover, this research adopted the thematic analysis technique to analyze the data; the theoretical bases include the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) and the components of metaverse as the lens and framework to develop this research. The findings uncovered three scenes of T&H metaverse experiences, including mirror scenes (that reflect the physical and real world in the digital worlds), convergent scenes (that combine the digital and real worlds), and virtual native scenes (that mainly create a whole new virtual scene but still connect to the real world). All of these scenes require IoT to connect the physical world and digital at different levels. Such as, mirror scenes strongly need digital twin techniques through IoT to enhance the authenticity and synchronicity of digital hotels or attractions to immerse guests. Under a convergent scene, connecting via IoT devices to display visitors' paths in the attractions simultaneously or a message board with IoT functionality for users’ social interactions simultaneously. In a virtual native museum, even though users stay in a whole new virtual world, IoT techniques can transfer users from the real world to the virtual world and make them feel physically present. The results provide practical implementations to integrate the IoT into T&H, increasing customers' metaverse experience and enhancing the creative and innovative aspects of the T&H experience.

Today, the metaverse is everywhere; it has become a major buzzword. The term was first coined in an American writer’s 1992 science fiction novel, Snow Crash, as a portmanteau of meta (Greek prefix meaning beyond) and universe. Nearly three decades later today, it is no longer the setting of a science fiction epic. Rather, it is becoming as real as the physical world. In the current time, the metaverse is used as a concept to describe a seamless convergence of the physical and digital worlds, or a virtual community where people can work, play-to-earn, transact and socialize (J.P. Morgan, 2022).

From the past to the present, we are living in an age of social comparison. Above all, upward social comparison to those who are superior in terms of their social and economic status makes individuals feel psychologically deficient and threatened. As a result, individuals oftentimes exhibit compensatory consumption to relieve their unfulfilled desires such as stress, disappointment, and self-esteem deficiency by purchasing high-end products or brands (Mandel, Petrova, & Cialdini, 2006; Pettit & Sivanathan, 2011).

Virtual reality (VR) has been set with an expectation of becoming the technology to enable new electronic businesses on metaverse platforms. VR is an application of three-dimensional computer graphics to create a convincing virtual environment where users can interact (Cowan & Ketron, 2019). The most used immersive VR devices are head-mounted displays. Importantly, in addition to visual sense, auditory, haptic, and olfactory senses stimulating devices are used in conjunction with head-mounted displays to reach a multi-sensory VR experience (Xi & Hamari, 2021). VR has been part of the brand strategy for various marketing endeavours (Cowan & Ketron, 2019) such as viewing furniture or kitchen setups by IKEA or creating virtual customer experiences in the real estate sector. However, VR’s impact on the consumer thought model has not been thoroughly examined. This extended abstract contributes to this shortcoming.

Metaverse provides technology for people to connect, find communities, and grow businesses. Its sales have seen growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an era of metaverse, luxury brands such as Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Balenciaga, and Dolce & Gabbana are trying to adapt to new changes. They launched NFT(Non-fungible token) goods, digital fashion, and virtual luxury goods on various metaverse platforms such as Zepeto, Roblox, and Fortnite. For example, Ralph Lauren in Zepeto provides various types of luxury items, immerses in virtual performances, and has a game plot interaction. As people immerse themselves in the Metaverse, they feel happy from various activities—such as watching advertisements, drinking juice, and playing with friends. Thus, what factors should be considered when the luxury brands manage the metaverse?

Metaverse tourism is blurring the boundaries between the virtual and physical worlds. Among the core technologies in the metaverse world (e.g., Avatar, Virtual reality, Augmented reality, NFTs, etc.), the avatar has the potential power to revolutionise customer experience. Destination management organisation (DMO) can boost customers’ immersion through effective avatar customer journey design (ACJD) in the metaverse world. Yet, there is a lack understanding of how practitioners view an effective ACJD in the metaverse world. This study aims to explore the role of avatars on customer journey design in a metaverse tourism program (e.g., Dunhuang) from practitioners’ perspectives through a qualitative study. This study advances theoretical understanding about metaverse tourism in the tourism literature, and provides important implications for tourism industry on how to design tourist experiences in metaverse tourism.

With the infusion of advanced technology, interactions between customers and firms’ representatives take place in brick-and-mortar stores, 2D online sites, and even 3D metaverse environments. In the metaverse, a firm’s sales avatars interact with other users while representing the firm, recommend, and sell virtual items. Previous literature about the effectiveness of sales representatives agrees that a firm representatives’ smiling faces engender customer satisfaction and better interactions. However, it is unclear whether smiling faces of sales avatars will work the same way in the metaverse as they do in the real world. The current research examines whether a firm’s sales avatars with sad facial expression (vs. those with smiling facial expression) stimulate higher user intentions to interact with firm representative avatars, to purchase virtual items from the representative avatars, and to spread positive WOM about their experience in the metaverse. Moreover, focusing on subcultural appeal, we investigate why this unconventional phenomenon happens in the metaverse unlike in real world. We conducted two experiments to manipulate a firm representative avatar’s facial expression (smiling vs. sad) in the metaverse. We newly designed a metaverse place, and participants who put on a virtual reality headset are exposed to either a hat (Experiment 1) or shoes (Experiment 2) store where they can purchase a virtual hat or shoes. Experiments 1 and 2 basically tested the same things repeatedly. However, to improve internal validity and generalizability, Experiment 2 used human-like sales avatars instead of cartoon character-like sales avatars in Experiment 1, changed virtual stores from a hat store to shoes store, and finally controlled for various extraneous variables such as attractiveness, warmth, and competence of sales avatars, and user’s previous experience about metaverse. Sales representatives with a smile are believed to contribute to beneficial consumers’ attitudes and behaviors in offline stores. However, our experiments demonstrate that this well-received belief does not necessarily apply in the metaverse, where subcultural appeal plays a more critical role. In the metaverse, users evaluate sales avatars with sad facial expression (vs. with smiling facial expression) as more unique and cool (i.e., higher subcultural appeal), leading to their higher intention to interact with the sad sales avatar, to purchase a virtual item, and to spread positive WOM about their experiences. Our results imply that previous findings supported in the offline or 2D online sites may not work the same way in the 3D metaverse.

Based on the metaverse situation, this paper explores the influence of perceived usefulness and usability on brand experience. The brand experience include two dimensions of sensory experience and behavioral experience. And then, based on 329 valid data collected through online experiment, it makes an empirical analysis by structural equation model and hierarchical regression. Results show that, metaverse situational perceived usefulness and usability have significant effects on customer sensory experience and behavioral experience, and sensory experience plays a mediating role in the effects of usefulness and usability on behavioral experience. Social presence plays a positive moderating role in the influence path of usefulness and usability on sensory experience and behavioral experience.

In recent years, Metaverse has become one of the most popular buzzwords in digital transformation and marketing. The concept of the metaverse refers to a new paradigm for how we will use and interact with digital technologies within an immersive virtual environment (Dwivedi, et al., 2022).

Metaverse blends the physical and virtual worlds, transforming the customer's shopping experience. This study aims to identify the psychological mechanism in the metaverse environment and the relationship between metaverse experience and consumer happiness. To identify metaverse experiences, both behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were conducted. In a behavioral study, we found that consumers' happiness increased when participants were in an immersive metaverse space. In the fMRI study, we found greater activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and lateral occipital cortex (LOC) regions in the high level of the immersive metaverse and found a positive relationship with consumers' happiness. This paper is the first attempt in marketing to provide an integrative brain map for the metaverse experience. This brain map helps marketers better understand the consumer experience. This study suggests that only in the immersive metaverse space where virtual and physical experiences interact can consumers become one with the virtual space and maximize customer experience values.