The metaverse hasn’t received the best press recently — it’s hemorrhaging money every quarter.
Billions of dollars in investments were born out of an intense dedication to the metaverse’s success. It inspired businesses to jump on the bandwagon — some were more successful than others in surviving the metaverse’s current lull.
Will its existing fanbase be enough for it to make a comeback and make shopping in the metaverse a norm?
How Does Shopping In The Metaverse Work?
The metaverse is the internet rendered in 3D. Facebook parent company Meta hyped its inception in the last several years, and it didn’t land — but experts say it could make a resurgence as related tech advances.
The metaverse is where everything online, including shopping, communication, and consuming media, could happen as a digital avatar moving around an interactive environment. It leverages countless related technologies in the Web3 space, including augmented and virtual reality, GPS, blockchain technology, and artificial intelligence.
Shopping in the metaverse works the same way shopping in real life or through a website works — it’s just all digital. Shoppers will create avatars that represent themselves. People can then direct the avatars to walk up to their favorite stores — from McDonald’s to Gucci — and experience in-person shopping without leaving their computer or phone. They can browse clothing racks, order food, visualize home renovations, and even make real estate investments. Additionally, Character AI can give these avatars personalities and interactive features, enhancing the shopping experience.
For example, an avatar enters a metaverse furniture store. The user could then interact with a pixelated sofa set they would love in their home. The shopper may talk to customer service agents on the floor being operated by international staff, who can tell them how to use augmented reality to see how the set would look in their house or how to purchase the furniture as a genuine product or non-fungible token (NFT) using cryptocurrency instead of cash.
What’s The Outlook fFr Metaverse Commerce?
Countless brands are dipping their toes into metaverse waters, with only a few astounding winners. The reason is that online explorers want more than shopping in the metaverse. They want gamification and connection. Players strive to achieve exclusivity and value with their experiences that extend past a single-time transaction.
The sooner companies find ways to amplify the value of their purchases, the more quickly shopping in the metaverse will become commonplace. Additionally, if digital storefronts connect their metaverse shopping assets with real-life integration, such as app connectivity, it will expand a store’s audience to reach more customers.
They also want to engage in planned disruptions to improve their shopping experience. Examples of planned disruptions include scanning QR codes to learn more about a product or direct-to-consumer experiences with social media influencers. Numerous shoppers already participate in these interruptions to shopping experiences to do product research or look up customer reviews.
Integrations like these should get incorporated into shopping in the metaverse as concerned customers want quality products and the ability to price check or find discounts and personalized offers in a low-commitment setting.
What Companies Are Leading The Charge?
Why would companies want to invest time in the metaverse shopping landscape or experience like VR Chat? Is there a market for digital assets that don’t translate into real life, or should people choose a digital storefront instead of visiting a brick-and-mortar? Millennials and younger people, on the whole, prefer spending time online, so premium brands must take advantage of that.
Shopping in the metaverse has a clear advantage over traditional methods, and that’s through data collection. The fashion industry is one of the champions of this race because it gathers customer information to determine personal style, outfit trends, and style preferences. Knowing this much about a customer makes the sales experience more curated.
The better a brand knows customers personally — which would otherwise be impossible for large clothing retailers — the more successful its bottom line will be.
One of the companies succeeding is Nike. They created Nikeland in the Roblox ecosystem so gamers could purchase exclusive products for their characters in NFTs.
They have had over 7 million visitors to their digital store. Roblox is an example of gaming environments that have created micro-metaverses that will inspire a more robust landscape. Stores testing their success in these smaller environments will be the leading experts, and industry thought leaders in metaverse shopping best practices.
Similar endeavors include Balenciaga’s stamp on the hugely popular game Fortnite and Burberry in Minecraft. There are also non-fashion success stories, such as fitness brands selling digital exercise memberships — like Alo Yoga in Roblox — to work out and practice mindfulness in their metaverse studios. Entertainment box offices sell tickets to digital concerts and events for immersive, exclusive fan experiences.
What The Metaverse Can Do To Make Shopping Work
The possibilities are endless. Buying a new shirt could provide data that generates 100 new outfits for the buyer. Purchasing a ticket to a metaverse concert might unlock access to a members-only viewing of the buyer’s favorite band’s music with exclusive NFT art to boot.
These in-depth virtual experiences will revolutionize consumerism, as buyers have high expectations for what their digital investments should bring them. As brands test what is and isn’t enticing consumers, they will learn personalization, diversity, and exclusivity to convert leads for digital explorers.
Shopping in the metaverse will only become the norm when brands study their target audience and hone in on what incentives will keep them returning to their metaverse shop.
