Bringing virtual reality for commercial Web sites

It is argued that in order to attract customers through their Web sites, dot-coms are required to balance a trade-off between interactivity, immersion, and connectively, depending on their business objectives.

Abstract

In today's competitive environment, a growing number of firms are establishing their presence in the market space. Even though the potential of the Internet in shaping business strategies has been widely acknowledged, firms in an array of industries are still struggling to attract customers through their Web sites. Based on Steuer's (J. Commun. 42(4) (1992) 73) and Rheingold' (The Virtual Community, ACM/Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1993) arguments on perceptual experience in the virtual space, we present a theoretical framework that highlights the relative importance of interactivity, immersion, and connectivity for attracting customers through a Web site. Interactivity has been measured through the speed of interactivity, range of interactivity, and significance. Immersion has been measured through the breadth of immersion and depth of immersion. Connectivity has been measured through the scope of connectivity. Through an experimental study, the features of amazon.com, ebay.com, schwab.com, and victoriasecret.com have been analysed with respect to interactivity, immersion, and connectivity. We argue that in order to attract customers through their Web sites, dot-coms are required to balance a trade-off between interactivity, immersion, and connectively, depending on their business objectives.