Grocery shopping in metaverse: understanding drivers and barriers

Purpose This study aims to enhance our understanding of customer expectations and experiences in grocery shopping within the metaverse. It investigates factors influencing customer satisfaction and driving continued engagement with metaverse platforms, offering insights into the drivers of customer adoption and barriers to usage. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a qualitative netnographic approach, this study analysed customer reactions to Walmart’s virtual store demonstration. Data were collected from user comments on YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and Reddit. Thematic analysis was employed to identify key factors contributing to satisfaction and dissatisfaction with metaverse grocery shopping experiences. Findings The study reveals three major drivers shaping customer satisfaction and subsequent positive intentions toward grocery shopping in the metaverse: social, functional and hedonic stimuli. Eight critical barriers affecting the metaverse shopping experience are identified: functional, hedonic, social, financial, privacy, safety, ownership and store atmospherics concerns, including tactile, acoustic and visual elements. Research limitations/implications The findings are derived from a qualitative analysis of customer comments on social media platforms, which may limit generalisability. Future studies could adopt a mixed-methods approach to validate these findings across broader datasets. Originality/value This work is the first research to examine customer satisfaction with grocery shopping in the metaverse. It offers valuable insights into customer expectations, adoption drivers and critical barriers, laying the groundwork for further exploration of metaverse applications in retail.