- According to Strategic Market Research, the metaverse market will touch USD 678.80 billion by 2030.
The metaverse is being keenly watched by all industry sectors. Retail is one of the most dynamic sectors and has to constantly keep pace with all business trends. The retail sector is customer oriented and meeting their aspirations is crucial. As Web3 infrastructure evolves, any metaverse development company will explore potential paths for retail organizations to scale their operations in the mirror world.
Retail brands are leaving no stones unturned when it comes to leveraging the metaverse opportunity. It is opening up new vistas of engaging customers, from digital shopping to NFT purchases of virtual goods and immersive experiences. Daily, the metaverse is gathering more followers as individuals and organisations keep themselves updated with the latest happenings in the 3D world.
- Decentraland organised a Metaverse Fashion Week in March 2022, where leading retail brands revealed metaverse retail strategies.
- Gartner has predicted that by 2026, 25% of the world’s population will spend at least 60 minutes per day in the metaverse.
This is a big customer base that retailers cannot afford to miss out on!
State of Retail Brands in the Metaverse
Well-known and established retail brands are enhancing their metaverse retail presence. Decentraland has opened a virtual shopping arcade and boasts of well-known brands as clientele.
Catwalk in the Metaverse? All possible. The metaverse fashion week saw product displays to digital and NFT sales to cat walks in the metaverse. Prominent artists like Nicole Buffet and 2 BAYC were enthusiastic participants. Prominent brands launched exclusive designs and wearables. Imitation of Christ launched the IOC-Genesis, its first digital collection on the platform. Alongside, there are brands offering only digital collections, such as DressX’s and Merts Otsamo and Nicholas Kirkwood’s White Rabbit NFT line.
The show offered an experience similar to a real world shopping with in store browsing in shops and boutiques. Plans are on to gamify the fashion experience and offer customers a more engaging experience.
H&M is another leading name in the fashion segment that has entered the metaverse clothing segment. A regular participant of the Animal Crossing game, its island – Loop Island, reflects its vegan values. Players in the game can virtually access the clothes from the Able Sisters shop.Balenciaga is again another famous brand with a metaverse entry.
Retail and high end fashion brands are capitalising on the opportunity. They understand that getting a foothold now will offer them the resources to scale and capture markets.
What is the Future of Metaverse Retail?
How will the Metaverse Impact Retail? These are questions that every retailer is asking. Hence, keeping a close watch on the trends is important. Every technology has taken time to mature, but its acceptance is inevitable. Retailers, including wholesalers, distributors etc., will do well to closely follow and keep themselves updated with the metaverse retail trends.
- The Digital Life Index has analysed that more than 59% of people prefer online shopping.
For sure, the online market cannot be ignored. However, customers’ aspirations are increasing, and they are seeking more novel online experiences. Well, the metaverse has the potential to satisfy the aspirations of both brands and clients.
The metaverse is a digitally simulated world that will enable 3D interactions for users. Users will be able to try before buy. The experience will be like as in the real world.
Let’s check out some innovations that will steer the metaverse retail sector in the coming years.
- Omnichannel Marketing
The metaverse will open up innovative marketing strategies. Retailers can place hoardings and billboards at strategic locations. Product demos will be highly sophisticated immersive event, while NFT-based loyalty programs will equip the customer to be an integral part of the metaverse ecosystem. Omnichannel marketing integrates offline and online modes to offer customers a seamless purchase journey.
- Hyper-Personalization
Metaverse tech allows hyper-personalization. Metaverse Retail tech enables users to take a full-body selfie and try on clothes, shoes, cosmetics, jewellery and accessories as well. With more sophistication, body sizing measurements will be more accurate, offering customers a perfect size fitting. Brands will be able to fulfil sizing needs and cultural and personal preferences.
- AR Shopping is already a rage, with Snapchat registering more than 250 million users of the AR shopping lenses since January 2021.(*Forbes)
- Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
AR –VR technologies will profoundly impact the Metaverse. Already a trending technology, AR has been adopted by leading players such as IKEA and Amazon and is a big hit with customers trying out their products. VR is one of the basic technologies of the metaverse driving immersive experiences.
- The global AR, VR and MR markets are set to reach a revenue of 250 billion U.S. dollars by 2028, as per Statista.
Hence it is inevitable that the metaverse will benefit from this growth.
- Non-fungible Tokens
- The Fabricant set the stage for NFTs when they sold a digital garment for £7,500 in 2019. (*analytics steps).
Since then, the NFT fan base is growing steadily.
- In fact reports show that more than 42% of millennials are collecting NFTs and the trend is expected to rise. (*Detego)
- Adidas not to be left out floated 30,000 NFTs in the metaverse. Each NFT accorded exclusive ownership to the buyer for actual products. With this sale Adidas generated $22 mn. (*Detego)
Don’t Miss Out on the Metaverse Retail Opportunity.
The virtual metaverse world will foster deeper engagement between brands and customers. Brands will target customers with hyper personalisation recommendations and product offerings. This will foster deeper engagement levels, enhanced customer satisfaction and a better ROI for retailers.
NFTs are proof of exclusive ownership for any transactions in the metaverse.
- The market is growing rapidly and if we focus on the luxury NFT sector, it is expected to reach $56bn by 2030. (*detego)
Retailers keen on exploring the metaverse can consider a partnership a specialised metaverse development company and an NFT development company to ensure a targeted strategy.