Research landscape structuring of customer experience (CX) in the metaverse: Evidence from a dual analytical approach using bibliometrics and topic modelling techniques

The purpose of this research is to map the customer experience (CX) literature in the metaverse using a dual approach, bibliometric analysis and topic modelling. While both methods are individually known, their combined application to specifically isolate CX within metaverse research has been limited. Our objective is not to claim a breakthrough method but to offer a structured, reproducible synthesis of existing knowledge. We analysed 1460 peer-reviewed articles from the Scopus database using bibliometric techniques followed by Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling. The analysis revealed seven dominant themes: Customer Experience Enhancement, Brand Engagement & Virtual Services, Marketing Research Trends in CX, Digital Marketing Impact & NFT Adoption, AI-Driven Engagement & Mediation, Immersive Business & Value Creation, and Consumer Behavior in Virtual Retail. When interpreted collectively, these themes reveal three important patterns, a strong orientation toward positive outcomes, a notable silence on ethical and sustainability issues, and fragmentation between technical and psychological research streams. The findings call for the evolution of traditional CX frameworks to reflect immersive, co-created, and avatar-mediated experiences. Practitioners are encouraged to adopt customer-centric strategies that leverage AI, gamification, and virtual branding. The study also provides strategic guidance on where academic inquiry and innovation in CX design should be focused next.