Metaverse is a combination of three-dimensional virtual worlds based on augmented, virtual, and extended realities and it allows users to interact with people living in distant locations with the help of the internet. They share the same content and environment inside the metaverse and the presence of each person is in the form of avatars, and they can perform real-world activities in the virtual world. There are many such features that are perfectly suitable for Metaverse for retail industry.
Technologists are making deep research to carry out metaverse development to enable shoppers to have extraordinary online shopping experiences and enhance business profits to a whole new level. Some popular brands are already showing great interest in opening Metamalls for their customers in which they can view different varieties of products, try them in a virtual ecosystem, and buy selective pieces without any complication.
How Metaverse in Retail Helps The Shoppers & Businesses
Unlike traditional brick-and-mortar stores, businesses can allow their customers to have an immersive shopping experience through their Metaverse for retail initiatives. It makes it easier for shoppers to interact with other people and sales person, compare different products and buy the choicest items, without any need to step out of their homes. In addition to this, they can choose their digital avatars to match their personalities. Even Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook turned Meta company has remained in highlights for his avatar.
Luxury fashion brands are among those who are taking metaverse development seriously. For example, Christian Dior and Meta Media are collaboratively working in the area of Metaverse for retail and they are about to organize a metaverse runway show in April 2023 in China. On the other hand, the famous fashion brand, Dolce & Gabbana, is creating NFTs for its brand promotion and has already sold NFTs worth $6 million and the revenues are increasing day by day.
Interestingly, restaurants are also venturing into new metaverse development projects to earn a better response from their customers. McDonald’s is a big name in the international market and has a chain of restaurants across different countries. It has filed a trademark for its food products and drinks, as well as NFTs that help in running a virtual restaurant online in which customers can get home delivery in the physical world.
Selling Virtual Clothes & Accessories
With the emergence of AR, VR, and XR realities, Metaverse for retail has become a new normal in the fashion world and also provides businesses a chance to sell their products remotely, in a similar manner as they can operate their physical stores in which the customers can view and try different pieces of apparel ad accessories.
Roblox and Gucci decided to seek the help of Rook Vanguard (pseudo name) for metaverse development. Vanguard created some amazing virtual accessories, such as color-changing top hats, halos, and wings that became highly popular. He is also famed for creating a black and white mask that can turn happy to sad, and it has become one of the best-selling items in the digital world.
Celebrities are also using Metaverse for retail for selling virtual clothing, hats, sunglasses, and various kinds of accessories. Swedish pop star Zara Larsson gained highlights for selling virtual items for a virtual dance party hosted by her in Roblox. She earned $1 million by selling digital sunglasses and hats. Isn’t it worth noticing?
Preparing Your Company For Metaverse Development For Retail
Metaverse technology is still evolving, so it might be difficult for you to predict which areas would be worth making investments in. However, you must follow some of the fundamental principles to make your metaverse development project much more meaningful than you might have expected:
- Simplify Customer Experience
If you are planning to develop a metaverse for retail, you must ensure that it helps to improve customer experience. The products must be displayed attractively and customers must be provided with easy payment options. Moreover, the products they have bought in the virtual world must be delivered to them at their actual location in the physical world. It would be even better to enable the customers to choose the most preferred one out of multiple languages and have a frictionless shopping experience. - Induce Future-proof Tech Stack For Making The Virtual Store Customer Friendly
Enterprises are spending millions of dollars on metaverse development for their retail businesses. Therefore, they prefer to implement MACH (microservices, API-first, cloud-native, and headless) architecture that enables retailers to respond quickly and serve the customers in a better way. It helps businesses to stay ahead of their competitors and become more agile. In a way, keeping in pace with the advanced metaverse for retail technology helps to future-proof the business. - Use Product Data & information With Accuracy
When you are all set to start metaverse development for your retail business, you must ensure that the details of the digital twin of real-world products should be mentioned clearly. It means that the details of physical products have to be provided to the customers while showing the virtual version of those products. The customers would have the immersive experience of shopping for the most preferred items from the metaverse for retail stores after knowing the required information about each product in their shopping cart. - Test The Platform
Code reviews and testing is the most vital part of metaverse development. It helps to detect vulnerabilities and glitches. Developers would take timely actions to make the metaverse totally risk-free.
Metaverse for retail- Are There Any Gaps?
As we are aware that virtual reality helps to provide an immersive shopping experience to customers, but it is necessary to know what it cannot do.
Let’s find out!
- Comparing Sight In Real World And Metaverse
When the customers buy things through the physical stores, they can view the real products, but when the metaverse development is done for a retail store, the developers pay focus on creating a visually appealing environment in which the virtual replica of products is displayed attractively. No wonder, there would be a huge difference in the real and virtual replicas of products. - Customers Can’t Smell inside metaverse
The concept of metaverse for retail can’t fit all kinds of products. There are varieties of perfumes, deodorants, and aromatic products that need to be smelled before buying. This is something that can’t be done in the virtual world. - Customers Can’t Touch
Sense of touch helps the customers compare the texture and material of certain products like clothing. Anyone having expertise in metaverse development can never make it possible for the customers to touch and feel the texture of products they are going to buy. - Customers Can’t Taste
Unlike the customers who can taste the edibles in the real world, metaverse for retail can’t make it possible in the virtual world.
What Do We Expect In The Future?
Today, we can find immediate solutions to fill the gaps related to real sight, smell, touch, and taste inside a metaverse. However, it is possible to provide a real-like environment to the customers by simulating the various constituents of a virtual shopping center.
Closing Thoughts
Metaverse technology is still in its infancy stage but has certainly changed the ways retail businesses are operating these days. It has allowed customers to wear AR glasses to enter the metaverse through their digital avatars and start having a simulated shopping experience.
Want to extract the real potential of metaverse for retail? Consult Antier team that specializes in metaverse development and has already completed many such projects successfully.
