The Immersive Experience in Commercial Web Sites of Virtual Reality

This qualitative study is the first to confirm the validity of immersion as a relevant concept to capture the essence of online commercial experiences. Our study also highlights the specificities of immersive experiences engendered by virtual reality applications available on commercial web sites. We identify the most important experiential components of e-commerce web sites using virtual reality devices (i.e. virtual agents and 3D decor). We finally shed some light on the influence of immersive experiences on the potential responses of the visitor towards the site, the brand and the product, in terms of cognitions, purchase intentions and relational behaviors. To conclude, we expose a conceptual model that subsumes the phenomenon of immersion in the context of online consumption experiences, and suggest further research to make a better use of virtual reality devices on commercial web sites