From Metaverse to the Real World: The Role of avatar-self congruence in Virtual Purchasing Behavior

Team: Jinsu Park: Research Idea development, Data collecting, Data analysis, and Writing; Naeun Lauren Kim: Research Idea development and Writing

Program: Apparel Studies, Retailing and Consumer Studies

The object of the study is to explore the role of appearance similarity and self-congruence with avatar on virtual product purchase intentions and link the virtual consumption intentions to that of the real world.

The aim of this study was to examine the role of “avatar” in the metaverse, specifically, by exploring how appearance similarity with an avatar affects virtual product purchase intention, which is mediated by self-congruence and flow. Further, this study also attempted to find how human behavior in the virtual world could affect behavior in the real world. An online survey was administered to a total of 164 users of a popular South Korean metaverse platform ZEPETO.

The findings indicated that the appearance similarity with the avatar influenced virtual product purchase intention, and this relationship was fully mediated by avatar-self congruence. This study also found that virtual product purchase intention could influence real product purchase intention. Based on these findings, it is suggested high-quality avatar customization is critical for users, and retail brands can utilize metaverse as a new marketing tool and as a testbed for new products.