The Avatar Economy

The shift from omnichannel to metachannel marketing marks a strategic evolution in how brands design consumer journeys. While omnichannel focuses on seamless integration across touchpoints, metachannel marketing emphasizes immersive, intelligent, and persistent environments where consumers interact through avatars and extended realities. This chapter examines consumer engagement with metaverse shopping as a lens to understand this transition. Using a survey-based study with validated scales, it analyzes how user engagement, telepresence, social presence, cognitive and affective trust, and flow shape purchase intentions for virtual goods. Results suggest that willingness to buy depends not only on functional aspects such as accessibility and price but also on symbolic value, community belonging, and identity expression through avatars. Strategically, the study highlights how brands can move beyond channel integration toward experiences that are personalized, immersive, and trust-driven, positioning metaverse shopping as a prototype of metachannel marketing.