-Purpose: An emerging body of research has investigated telepresence and presence notions in online retailers’ websites during the past two decades. Since that time considerable research has been published in different fields to explain the meanings and applications of these notions. This study aims to investigate the antecedents and consequences of 3D product simulation telepresence and the effects of the consequences on consumers’ behavioural intentions on the online retailer Website.
-Design/methodology/approach: this study developed a retailer Website in which a variety of laptops are presented by using 3D product visualizations. This research used a within-subjects design and employed two laboratory experiments. In the first experiment, a two-way repeated measure ANOVA was conducted to determine the effects of the manipulated conditions on the dependent variable (i.e., 3D telepresence). Finally, we used Amos 16 to test the overall goodness of fit of the proposed conceptual model.
-Originality/values: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first in the UK that used a UK sample to investigate the effects of using 3D product visualization in an electrical industry (i.e., laptops) on consumers’ experiences. Secondly, this paper merged constructs from the human-computer-interaction (HCI) field (i.e., control, vividness and telepresence) to the proposed model. Moreover, the way this paper defines interactivity and telepresence adds value to this study. Thirdly, we developed new scales to measure telepresence and control constructs to suit consumers’ experience in the online retailer context. Finally, the design of this study is original in using a website that contains 3D product visualization with both utilitarian and hedonic values.
-Findings: The manipulation checks showed that high control and animation provides most effective representation of telepresence. The overall goodness of fit of the conceptual model met the standards and showed that all the hypothesized paths were valid