Researchers at the Global Smart Lab, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, studied how older grocery customers view shopping in virtual reality. The exploratory study, presented at IASDR 2025 in Taipei, asked adults aged 65 and over about their perceptions, expectations and concerns, with the aim of drawing design requirements for an age-friendly VR shopping platform.
The team used a mixed-method approach combining VR grocery-shopping trials in a virtual supermarket with interviews, observations and focus groups. The findings below are as reported in the paper abstract.
Research question
What do older adults (65+) think of VR-based grocery shopping, what barriers and opportunities do they see, and what design requirements follow for an age-friendly VR shopping platform?
What participants reported
- Benefits: enhanced mobility, immersive realism, reduced decision fatigue, and cognitive and sensory engagement.
- Positive responses to intuitive spatial navigation, interactive product handling and familiar supermarket elements, which contributed to a natural and enjoyable experience.
- Interest in social interaction and multisensory feedback.
- Challenges: cost, complexity, physical discomfort and unfamiliarity, which the authors say currently hinder wider adoption.
Design recommendations and future research
The authors conclude that VR retail for older users should simplify visual interfaces, reduce cognitive load, enable multisensory support and offer optional social features. They call for future research on the balance between physical and virtual retail, inclusive interface and interaction design, the added value of VR shopping beyond mirroring physical stores, and multi-user interaction in VR shopping.
Scope of the evidence
These are participant-reported perceptions from an exploratory qualitative study, not measured shopping outcomes. The abstract does not state the sample size, study site, dates or VR hardware, and the findings should not be read as showing effects on actual shopping behavior. A recorded seminar in which the lead author presents the study is linked as a video.
