Text | MetaPost
Source: Blue Whale Finance
Image source: Generated by Unbounded Layout AI Works.
As an important part of driving the future Crypto economy, the metaverse is integrating into our lives from top to bottom. From concept to construction, the Metaverse is spawning technological upgrades in various industries, and the retail industry, which is most connected to ordinary consumers, is also actively participating in this trend.
The retail industry is divided into the offline-based traditional trade field and the online-based e-commerce field including mobile phones. The development of Crypto technology has promoted the rapid growth of the e-retail field. At present, the popularity of various technologies and smartphones has made retail brands develop into new retail that integrates online and offline, and is developing towards a deeper level of the metaverse.
PwC’s “2022 Global Consumer Insights Survey China Report” pointed out that although the consumer metaverse is still in its infancy, it can provide new opportunities for brands, just like the previous changes in e-commerce’s operating model.
Xie Yongming, executive vice president of Shenzhen Smart Retail Association, said in an interview with MetaPost, a media of Metaverse technology, that with the increasing abundance of material goods, the content of consumption is changing, from material consumption to spiritual consumption, cultural consumption, experience consumption, etc. In the future, young consumers will pursue spiritual satisfaction and pay more attention to social attributes. Therefore, Metaverse can better meet the needs of young consumer groups in the future, and can better effectively combine physical and virtual products, bring a new consumption experience, and change the way brands or products are spread and sold.
At present, many retail brands, traditional supermarkets, e-commerce platforms, and even the new species of virtual shoes and clothing have launched a new round of competition on the Metaverse track, and even more and more intense.
01 Virtual human joins the “Double Eleven” battlefield
This year’s Double Eleven, many merchants saw the opportunity to join the “top-stream” Metaverse in marketing to gain a wave of popularity and attract more consumers.
Among them, Ali made a “new move”, and its platform marketing planning center recently announced that this year’s Double Eleven will join the imagination and innovation, and for the first time will introduce a new experience of people and goods yard – the Metaverse Continent “Mantavos”.
“Mantaworth” comes from the transliteration of the English “Metaverse” in the Metaverse. It can be seen that Ali chose the most direct way to name the Metaverse platform.
Figure | “MO Magazine” inaugural issue Mantaworth
It is reported that consumers can directly create their own virtual images on Mantavos and become the first aborigines to land in the Metaverse, which will undoubtedly bring about a huge innovation in experience.
In fact, as early as last year, Ali set up the Metaverse and fell in love with AYAYI, a super-realistic Crypto person created by Burning Mai Technology. This cool and cool lady with super high value has become the Crypto manager of Tmall Super Brand Day. people. In May of this year, Ali launched the ultra-realistic male Crypto figure Noah, and then this handsome guy also started endorsement cooperation with many brands.
Figure | Mobius
In simple terms, the metaverse and e-commerce are like two fields of technology and commerce, and virtual humans are one of the best ways to integrate these two fields at present. At present, four commercial platforms for virtual Crypto people have been formed in China: Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo, and Station B, mainly including live broadcast rewards, e-commerce delivery, short video advertisements, brand endorsements, and offline event linkages.
Figure | Real person + virtual person live broadcast
Relevant data shows that as of September 2022, the investment and financing amount of my country’s virtual Crypto human race track has reached 2.49 billion yuan.
Compared with real anchors, businesses are more inclined to seek an anchor who will not collapse and has a large space for manipulation, and these requirements are very well met by virtual people. Not only that, the virtual human IP is properly operated, and theoretically it can be close to the state of immortality, which can be regarded as a relatively cost-effective business.
On major platforms, a number of virtual anchors have emerged. In the live broadcast rooms of Taobao, JD.com, Kuaishou and other platforms, there are virtual people who provoked the main beam to live broadcast alone, and there are virtual people and live anchors who combine live broadcasts. Many users are attracted by them and come to watch and place orders. Either way, it attracted a wave of fans to the live broadcast room.
02 Walmart’s “gaming metaverse”
At the end of September, Walmart announced that it will launch two metaverse experience projects, called “Walmart World” and “Walmart Entertainment World”, on the online gaming platform Roblox.
Figure | Walmart World
Among them, “Walmart World” will provide a virtual store to display fashion, beauty and entertainment products; “Walmart World of Entertainment” will provide a gaming experience featuring IP products and characters such as Jurassic World.
Walmart Chief Marketing Officer William White has publicly stated that Roblox will be a testing ground for Walmart and is considering moving Walmart to the Metaverse in the future. The experience, he said, is designed for the next generation of shoppers, especially Gen Z, who are typically defined as 25 or younger.
Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research, believes that in recent years, the users entering Walmart are mainly middle-aged and elderly people, and young people are increasingly staying away from Walmart. The Metaverse project is a new starting point for Walmart. “Rejuvenation” is not only a current business layout, but also a strategic adjustment in the future.
The relevant person in charge of Walmart pointed out that Walmart will not make money from the experience projects of these two metaverses. Players can earn tokens and other rewards for purchasing virtual goods on Roblox, such as surprises for League of Legends, Skullcandy headsets, etc.
03 Dyson: “Move” the virtual store to the home
In the modern retail model of technology products, experience is a very important part.
In traditional stores, in addition to providing quotations, introducing basic specifications, and conducting sales services, clerks rarely give information about the use of technology products. If consumers want to know more about specific performance or actual experience, they often have to do their own strategies or watch UGC content on social media to find out. A situation where the requirements do not match.
In order to facilitate potential users to understand products more intuitively, Dyson recently launched a VR experience store. Consumers can download the “Dyson VR Experience Store” through the PICO VR all-in-one machine and “PICO VR Assistant” to explore Dyson products in a new way. .
Figure | Experience virtual hair care through PICO VR
Figure | Experience virtual hair care through PICO VR
Unlike web pages or AR, which can only be viewed, the greatest value of VR experience stores lies in the interactive experience. You can pick up these products like other VR applications – you can play left and right to feel the industrial design and functionality, and you can turn on the switch for intuitive perception. Product working status. In this process, Dyson can be said to have “no reservations” about the details of the product.
Most of the products currently launched in the Dyson VR experience are related to personal care, so Dyson set up a hair model in this virtual space for demonstration, just like the wigs displayed in the experience store in the real world. If you are holding a hair styler, you can interact with the virtual tress, see how technologies such as airflow act on the hair, and intuitively understand the different hairstyles created by the product.
04 New species – Nike’s virtual sneakers
Metaverse not only brings empowerment to traditional retail, but also brings unexpected market prospects to brand-new virtual consumer brands.
Generally speaking, it may take several years or even a decade for a fashion brand to grow into a trendy brand in the eyes of the public. After the emergence of the metaverse concept, RTFKT (a virtual sneaker brand under Nike) proved that entrepreneurs can quickly create a new fashion brand in the virtual world with excellent design and technical development capabilities, and then spread to the offline. How fast can it be? From scratch, RTFKT took only 2 years.
Rtfkt made its name by delivering record numbers of Crypto sneakers and shaping trends in the Web 3.0 era. The Rtfkt x Nike AR Genesis hoodie features an NFC chip that can be tracked through augmented reality, allowing the wearer to wear virtual wings and more.
Figure | Rtfkt x Nike AR Genesis Hoodie
This isn’t the first time Rtfkt fans have had the opportunity to “build” a physical product, with physical sneaker twins already available, and this is the first apparel project. Now, Rtfkt aims to get Nike fast into the future with the help of NFC chips, AR clothing, Crypto and open source IP.
05 The new retail of Metaverse is still in the exploratory period, and meeting the new needs of consumers is the key
Although there are countless new retail cases related to Metaverse in the market, the huge retail industry is still in the exploratory stage of “crossing the river” in the face of Metaverse, and the industry should be open to this concept. , to find a balance between virtual and physical symbiosis and co-prosperity, thus opening a new era of retail industry.
Xie Yongming, executive vice president of Shenzhen Smart Retail Association, pointed out that from the perspective of the consumer industry, the development of Metaverse needs to be considered from the perspective of industrial development and consumer demand. value and wider development. The innovative application of Metaverse in the consumer field will be the key to meeting the needs of consumers that could not be achieved in the past.
Source of information: compiled from 8BTC by 0x information.The copyright belongs to the author and may not be reproduced without permission