How Do Metaverse Marketing Campaigns Help in Building Consumer Loyalty and Experience? A Study of the Clothing Industry in Malaysia

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Theoretical Framework

The paper is based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model, according to which internal states of cognition-affect determine behavioural reactions to environmental stimuli, as (Hochreiter et al., 2022) indicate. The stimulus in this analysis is the marketing environment of metaverse VR, compared with traditional e-commerce marketing, as external atmospheric inputs. This was in line with (Erensoy et al., 2024; and Liang & Wu, 2024), who observed that an immersive digital marketing setting serves as a powerful stimulus that shapes consumer perceptions.

Within the S-O-R model, immersive settings (e.g., VR/metaverse) can serve as stimuli that trigger organismic reactions involving cognitive, sensory, and affective responses, as noted by (Pratas et al., 2025). In this context, immersive engagement throughput encompasses attentional absorption, emotional involvement, and sensory immersion. In contrast, experiential loyalty is an instant attachment and preference, and a revisit inclination during the interaction, rather than the repetitiveness of behaviour in the long term, as argued by (Al-Adwan et al., 2025; and Yang & Xiao, 2024b). Affective bonding is triggered by immersion triggers, as components of organismic processing, giving rise to proto-loyalty that co-evolves with engagement. (Alexander & Van Volkinburg, 2025; and Muhammad Sohail Jafar, 2024) have shown that emotional engagement and intentions to be loyal tend to co-occur in the digital realm. In this perspective, (Jiang et al., 2024) also found that attachment to the experience preceding observable repurchase behaviour is one way loyalty can be observed in experiential retail, and that VR enhances this process. Thus, combining immersive engagement and immediate loyalty into a single organismic structure is theoretically rational, as it creates an integrated experience and triggers downstream reactions, including purchase intention, brand recall, and revisit preference.

As part of the S-O-R framework, the conceptualisation of technology readiness and personalisation as organismic moderators that affect the processing of other external stimuli, namely the metaverse VR environment and traditional e-commerce platforms, by consumers (Al-Adwan et al., 2025). The ability to perceive and experience immersive stimuli is enhanced by higher technology readiness, whereas perceived relevance and attention are boosted by personalised content, as suggested by (Azmi et al., 2023). Therefore, these variables are not independent stimuli but influence the strength and efficacy of organismic responses, which, in turn, influence behavioural responses such as immersive involvement, loyalty, purchase intent, and brand recognition.

Moreover, the current study does not present a new theoretical framework; nevertheless, it contributes to the S-O-R framework by situating it within the Malaysian clothing industry and the metaverse marketing context. In particular, the operationalization of technology preparedness and personalization as organismic moderators provides a sophisticated insight into how immersive stimuli affect engagement and loyalty, and how purchase intentions and recall brand are influenced. This contextual use provides empirical information on the boundary conditions of S-O-R, demonstrating its applicability in new digital retail settings. As such, the study’s contribution is mainly contextual and empirical, providing information on the application of the theory and managerial practice.

2.2. Marketing Experience and Purchase Intention

(Wang et al., 2023) explores the nature of metaverse marketing using the S-O-R framework and indicates that perception, interactivity, and interest promote purchase intention by enhancing consumer shopping experience. Despite their theoretical strength, the study is limited by a small sample size (n = 119) and a homogeneous survey sample, which restricts causal inference and lowers generalisability. On the other hand, (Azmi et al., 2023) used an experimental design to compare physical and VR-based real estate settings and concluded that virtual atmospherics is more effective in evoking the sense of satisfaction and enjoyment, which, in turn, contribute to the growth of purchase intention. However, their internal validity is stronger but their applicability in rapidly evolving digital retail markets is limited due to their context-sensitive focus on real estate. In comparison, the two studies validate the S-O-R postulations, in which immersive stimuli influence consumer reactions, but neither emphasizes the clothing sector nor accounts for differences in demographic and technological preparedness. Also, studies do not provide any cross-environment experimental contrast in consumer goods setting. To overcome these constraints, the current study hypothesises H1 of the study as follows;

H1: Metaverse marketing experience has a statistically significant predictive relationship with consumer purchase intention in the Malaysian clothing industry.

2.3. Marketing Experience, Immersive Engagement, and Loyalty

The literature on immersive marketing, such as (Muhammad Sohail Jafar et al., 2024), provides evidence that virtual stimuli increase consumer involvement, although the available research varies in depth and methodological rigour. In this perspective, (Rane et al., 2023) emphasises the role of avatars, virtual spaces, and customised interaction in emotional immersion. Still, these are too general to describe loyalty strategies in sufficient detail to assess engagement per se. In contrast, (Arunchoknumlap & Jonpradit, 2023) offers more definite behavioural evidence than AR and traditional advertising, demonstrating that provenance and interaction capabilities trigger greater interaction and satisfaction. Though, by seeking to use AR rather than complete VR, they cannot enjoy the intensity of the senses that S-O-R scholars claim is important for eliciting deeper organismic states. The weakness is common to both studies: the lack of controlled experimental conditions to isolate the immersive stimulus and the inability to extend the findings to consumer-goods retail. Such gaps highlight the necessity of empirically based VR-based assessments in the apparel environments and therefore the following hypothesis:

H2: Metaverse marketing experience has a statistically significant predictive association with consumers’ immersive engagement and loyalty in the Malaysian clothing industry.

2.4. Marketing Experience and Brand Recall of Customers

Studies on the metaverse are gradually connecting immersive experiences with brand recall, though the current evidence remains disjointed. (Pratas et al., 2025) offer experimental control design delivering a comparison of VR and 3D interfaces showing that the increased level of sensory immersion does not always translate into the better brand recall-a finding that complicated the S-O-R assumption according to which the increased level of stimuli is bound to improve the cognitive responses. (Chowdhury et al., 2023), on the other hand, applied a mixed-methods and multi-industry approach, claiming that VR enhances attention and recall by creating emotionally engaging spaces. Still, their strategic approach is broad that it is hard to isolate immersion as the causal stimulus. The combined studies reveal a conflict between technological intensity and cognitive processing: VR can saturate memory, while a light interface can facilitate memory. Both articles are also not applicable to product-oriented retail situations and lack of sufficient analysis of consumer heterogeneity. These gaps create the need to focus on empirical testing on apparel settings.

H3: Metaverse marketing experience has a statistically significant relationship with consumers’ brand recall in the Malaysian clothing industry.

2.5. Technology Readiness and Personalisation Effect on Purchase Intention of Customers

Purchase intention is increasingly influenced by technology readiness and personalisation, yet current evidence shows conceptual and methodological divergences. (Becan & Çeber, 2025) predict internal consumer predispositions and show, based on a large-scale SEM survey, that technology preparedness elicits positive attitudes towards AI and more engaging chatbot interactions, leading to increased purchase intention. Conversely, (Riegger et al., 2022) focuses on external technological touchpoints and experimentally demonstrates that the effectiveness of personalisation depends on the presence or absence of technological devices, which enhance retail experiences for consumers. Although both articles confirm the S-O-R reasoning, which holds that technologically driven stimuli influence cognitive-affective states and, consequently, determine behavioural reactions, they differ in the depth of their explanation. The statistical design (Becan & Çeber, 2025) provides insightful mediation but may be applied exclusively in the context of AI-chatbot and does not allow generalisation to immersive retail. (Riegger et al., 2022) experiments provide a causal understanding but ignore general psychological characteristics, such as preparedness, that influence receptivity to personalisation. These literature arguments lead to formulation of fourth hypothesis H4 of the study;

H4: Technology readiness and personalisation have a statistically significant predictive relationship with Malaysian consumers’ purchase intentions in the clothing industry.

2.6. Technology Readiness and Personalisation Effect on Immersive Engagement and Loyalty of Customers

(Uwaoma et al., 2023) found that mixed-reality technologies can worsen engagement by augmenting sensory and cognitive immersion; however, because no empirical tests have been conducted, causal inferences are not possible, and moderators at the user level, such as technology readiness, have not been considered. In comparison, applying the SEM model on a large-scale Study (Sabaa et al., 2025) reveals that AI-driven personalisation and gamification substantially enhance engagement, and the readiness enhances the effects, which makes sense considering the S-O-R mechanism, as stimuli from AI/MR features can influence organismic states’ readiness and motivation before influencing engagement responses. However, because of the focus on telecom-specificities in their context, these cannot be transferred to experiential retail, where immersion is more based on spatial presence than service interaction. Comparing the studies, the researchers propose that personalisation and readiness are both conditional for immersive outcomes, but the evidence remains scattered across sectors and approaches. Therefore, grounded in the literature arguments fifth hypothesis H5 is developed;

H5: Technology readiness and personalisation have a statistically significant predictive association with immersive engagement and loyalty of consumers in Malaysia’s clothing industry.

2.7. Technology Readiness and Personalisation Experience Effect on Brand Recall

Technology preparedness and individualised digital experiences as precursors of cognitive outcomes, such as brand recognition. In this perspective, (Salhab, 2025), by applying SEM on AR users in telecom sector of Jordan evidenced that technology readiness substantially enhances adoption of AR which further results in reinforcing brand awareness, a finding aligned consistent with the S-O-R, according to which technologically enriched stimuli raise organismic processing, which enhance brand recall responses argued by (Al-Adwan et al., 2025) as well. Nonetheless, the high-involvement service setting of the sector and the culturally mediated effects do not allow generalisations about the retail setting, where visual-product exchange is predominant (Riva et al., 2003). (Adke et al., 2024) instead provides a conceptual, but not empirical, framework for digitalisation in banking, asserting that AI-based personalisation can improve the client experience, which implicitly implies that it may alter memory cues. However, its synthesis of the narrative does not conduct any causal testing, undermining claims about the mechanisms of brand recall. Hence, sixth hypothesis H6 of the study is formulated to investigate this relationship in the context of Malaysian clothing industry;

H6: Technology readiness and personalisation have a statistically significant association with brand recall of consumers in Malaysia’s clothing industry.

2.8. Research Gaps

The above literature review signifies several research gaps that are addressed in the current study. First, (Azmi et al., 2023; and Wang et al., 2023) show that metaverse marketing influences intention to buy in general retail and real estate settings. Still, there is a research gap regarding its effects on sector-specific outcomes in the clothing industry, particularly in Malaysia. As the Classic S-O-R literature, such as that of (Azmi et al., 2023; and Wang et al., 2023), emphasises, stimuli are not always equally effective in any given situation. Yet, purchase intention has been measured to date in generic retail without industry-specific cues. This leaves a knowledge gap on how immersive stimuli works in fashion-driven sensorial context- especially in Malaysia where cultural aesthetics and digital preparedness changes customer reactions more profoundly. In this way, the apparel industry is still, in theory, under-investigated, though it is an experience-based field.

Second, the majority of research works are based on cross-sectional surveys or conceptualised, as in (Adke et al., 2024; and Becan & Çeber, 2025), which limits the possibility of making causal conclusions about the impact of immersive marketing experiences on engagement and brand recall. Though S-O-R assumes a causal pathway through which the stimulus, internal state, and behaviour interact, the majority of metaverse studies adopt cross-sectional or conceptual designs (Adke et al., 2024; Becan & Çeber, 2026) which cannot be used to empirically support a causal pathway. As (Alexander & Van Volkinburg, 2025) notes, envir#Becan26onmental stimuli must be adequately tested in behavioural experiments. Therefore, there remains a methodological gap regarding whether immersive VR stimuli have a real impact on engagement and brand recall compared to traditional e-commerce settings. Third, technology readiness and personalisation are also reported as notable antecedents of consumer behaviour in (Riegger et al., 2022; Sabaa et al., 2025) but the effects of their interaction in immersive VR-based marketing settings are little studied. The proposed research uses an experimental design to investigate the combined impact of metaverse marketing experience, technology preparedness, and personalisation on purchase intention, engagement, and brand recall among Malaysian shoppers of clothes.