How will colour affect (3D virtual) eCommerce purchasing behaviours?

What is the effect of the store environment on shopping behaviour? Shun Yin Lam from City University of Hong Kong looked at this issue back in 2001. The below info-graphic published on Kissmetrics nicely visualises the findings of the research. Interestingly, research findings report:

• 42% of online shoppers base their opinions on a website on “overall design alone”
• 52% of online shoppers do not return because of “overall aesthetics”

All of which does raise the question of what will the impact of colour be in consumer behaviour in virtual eCommerce environments?

Will the effect be the same as recorded for online environments? For e.g. red is reported as being seen as communicating “energy” and “increasing heart rate” or will the use of red in virtual eCommerce environments be regarded as too overpowering? What about green? It’s associated with ‘wealth’ and relaxing in current store design (see info-graphic below)but how does this translate across to users experiencing a virtual environment?

Personalising virtual environments?

As the Virtual Reality (VR) industry matures and there is an increase in consumer uptake of VR experiences,  virtual creators will need to take account of varying consumer demographics for example older people and age related changes in vision.

Research tells us as people get older there is a need for additional light,increased sensitivity to glare, reduced visual acuity and depth perception. All factors which will need to be taken account of in future virtual environment creation.

If anyone has any more up to date data and research findings on the impact of consumer psychology in virtual environments would love to hear.