People who have a strong drive for novel experiences and tactile sensations are especially drawn to “e-fashion,” according to a new study. E-fashion refers to digital clothing that people – or more precisely their avatars – can wear in virtual environments and represents a growing online trend.

Established fashion brands and digital spaces such as video game platforms, social networks, and virtual worlds are rolling out e-fashion collections. In theory, digital garments are also more sustainable than physical ones, says study team member Kokho Jason Sit, senior lectur in marketing at the University of Portsmouth in the UK. “Nothing is physically produced, consumed and then disposed of, and thus no landfills and no modern slavery,” he says.

In order to improve the environmental sustainability of the fashion industry, digital garments must actually substitute for physical clothing purchases. The new study doesn’t directly address this issue, but it does suggest that digital clothing could have some surprising consumer dynamics.

In the study, Sit and his colleagues investigated what drives people’s willingness to pay for digital clothing in three online studies. The first study included 331 consumers in the UK who completed a questionnaire about their propensity to seek out novel sensations and experiences. Then they were shown a digital sports jacket and asked to rate its uniqueness and how much they were willing to pay for it.

The second study involved 157 consumers in Italy and focused on a digital tracksuit. It was structured similarly to the first, except that some of the participants were told about the opportunity to wear digital clothing in online environments, emphasizing the uniqueness of the product and experience. Indeed, participants exposed to this spiel rated the digital clothing item as more unique than did the others.

The third study involved 220 consumers in the United States and focused on a digital sports shoe. In addition to the questionnaire about sensory-seeking tendencies, participants completed a questionnaire about their need for touch to evaluate products and enjoy experiences.In all three studies, the greater the perceived uniqueness of digital clothing, the higher the consumer’s willingness to pay for it, the researchers report in the International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management.

This pattern was most pronounced for people with high sensory-seeking tendencies and a greater need for touch. Sit says he and his collaborators “were surprised by the positive effects of the need for touch on consumers’ willingness to pay for e-fashion.”

Straightforward logic would suggest that consumers with a high need for touch would prefer to be able to touch and physically try on a garment. “We learnt that, despite e-fashion being inherently virtual and intangible, consumers still emphasize the importance of ‘touching’ the e-fashion,” Sit says. In effect people with a high need for touch are better able to imagine touching and physically interacting with a digital garment.

Will digital garments scratch people’s itch for clothing novelty? Or will they just provide a new realm for additional consumption? After all, no matter how dazzling your virtual avatar’s wardrobe, you still have to clothe your humdrum human body. Or perhaps digital clothing could even supercharge fashion purchases, by creating a desire for real-life wardrobes that match the diversity of the virtual?

“It is not the predisposition of our work to argue or prove how e-fashion can displace physical fashion to promote sustainability,” Sit says. “Our work instead aims to provide a conversation on how to use e-fashion for a greater good in a baby-step. That is, targeting fashionistas that like to try new fashion items but don’t necessarily want to own them, but merely want to see they look like in new things, seeking to personalize and showcase their unique sense of styles and design.”

Source: Pino G. et al. “Will consumers pay for e-fashion? A multi-study investigation.” International Journal of Retail Distribution & Management 2025.

Image: by 3DAnimals/Envato