IoT-powered personalization: creating the optimal shopping experience in digital twin VFRs

A digital twin is a virtual data model that accurately maps and simulates a physical entity. Consumers can use digital twin technology to try on clothes in virtual fitting rooms (VFRs), thereby expressing their individuality. The primary objective of this study is to enhance the understanding of consumers' psychological state when shopping with VFRs. This will provide managers with a more comprehensive understanding of customer profiles and minimize the cognitive gap between managers and customers. This study primarily utilized Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and partial least squares- structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for analysis. The sample consisted of 356 participants from Taiwan, primarily users of VFRs. Bootstrapping of 50,00 iterations was employed to ascertain the significance of the hypotheses. The research reveals that psychological factors such as a sense of ownership control, rehearsability, and self-efficacy significantly enhance self-referencing. This, in turn, significantly influences purchase intentions within VFRs featuring digital avatars. Additionally, perceived augmentation moderates the relationship between a sense of ownership control and self-efficacy. Our primary contribution in this paper is to elucidate customers' subjective experiences when using VFRs, thereby addressing the dearth of research on VFRs and providing practical insights for industry managers.