BRANDS & ECOMMERCE

METAVERSE & BRANDS

The metaverse is considered to be the next stage of how we use technology — the successor of the internet age. Depending who you ask, the metaverse can extend to digital fashion, social media, augmented reality, virtual stores, video games and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), meaning that many brands began dabbling in metaverse principles even before the term became commonplace. As fashion becomes increasingly entrenched in the metaverse and its core Gen Z customer base spends more of its time playing, socialising and shopping there, understanding its full potential is crucial.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Metaverse is not something that any one company is going to build, but will be built in partnership with a lot of companies, creators and developers. You can think about the metaverse as an embodied internet, where instead of just viewing content — you are in it. You feel present with other people as if you were in other places, having different experiences that you couldn’t necessarily do on a 2D app or webpage. This immersive experience drives a much longer attention span which in turn generates many more influenced moments, product placements and ecommerce sales opportunities. Crypto currencies such as Bitcoin and NFT's will also play a role in the metaverse in the ecommerce space.

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Imagine accessing a virtual universe where you can create an entire world, bringing your physical world experiences with you. At a conceptual level, the metaverse can be thought of as the successor-state to today’s internet. It was only thirty years ago that the internet became publicly available, and twenty years ago that many businesses realized that a website was a necessity for marketing.

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We predict that 59 million and 93.3 million people in the United States will use VR and AR respectively at least once a month this year (2021) — that’s 17.7% and 28.1% of the total US population, respectively.

CHANGING THE GAME

Imagine being able to walk your avatar in to a virtual clothing 'world'.  Your avatar knows all of your real body measurements. The only products that are visible and suggested to you are the ones that fit. Shipping return due to bad sizing are drastically minimised and product sales increase due to the fact shoppers are not spending hours of their time and patience on trying on clothing items that don't fit. Click a button and the product arrives at your real door.
To add to the above opportunity is the ability for consumers to purchase clothing and items for their avatar. This has become increasingly popular in recent months. Cost to produce the product is $0 and the consumer You can dress your avatar with your favourite brand and be the best digital version of the real you.

ADVICE

Thanks to the pandemic push of new technologies and opportunities, VR is quickly moving away from the traditional stigma of being a waste of time to the next technology revolution – much like mobile technology has shaped our culture from the first version of the iPhone to now.

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Brands such as Gucci, Nike, Disney, Snap, and Facebook are in the midst of creating virtual communities, content, assets, fashion, art, experiences, and worlds.

We can now step out of our real world and into virtual worlds where we will have a new economy, environment, currency, and behaviours.

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Brands will need to rethink their narratives in three dimensions and marketers will need to embrace emerging technology at a faster speed. In the metaverse, everyone is a world builder, including brands.

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For brands and marketers, it’s important to remember the value of Gen Z and millennials – or the Snapchat Generation, as we like to call them.

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Just like marketers transitioned into optimizing to get found in search engines like Google, YouTube and Bing, it’s time to start analysing how to get found in the metaverse.

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You need to be implementing AR, VR, and 3D experiences into your marketing plans. Contact us to know more.