From Macys’ metaverse parade to Givenchy’s “Winter Wonderland,” holiday-themed metaverse experiences abound in the retail world this year.
In a season when consumers in the US alone are expected to spend up to $960.4 billion—and a year when excitement around the holidays is up (by 21 percentage points compared to 2021, according to McKinsey & Co.)—brands are focused on capturing the shopping spirit, and the attention of younger consumers.
But in 2023, the addition of Web3 to the holiday mix is an important change, according to Tim Dillon, SVP of real-time and virtual worlds at Media.Monks. “We’re certainly seeing, and have seen all year, a huge uptick in conversations with clients about…the value Web3 can bring them,” Dillon told Retail Brew.
The most wonderful digital time of the year
Neha Singh, former Google engineer and founder of experiential e-commerce platform Obsess, said that while most retailers are thinking about a year-round, longer-term metaverse strategy, the holidays are just as important in a virtual world as in traditional e-commerce or brick-and-mortar.
Brands are focused on engaging consumers and standing out across channels on a crowded stage, Singh said. “The biggest motivation for them is…how can we create something that’s differentiated and that, ultimately, is more memorable to consumers and will have a bigger impact?” she told Retail Brew.
- In November, Obsess paired up with registry platform Babylist on its third foray into the metaverse in the form of a holiday-themed virtual shopping experience: Babylist Land—Gifting Edition.
- For Babylist, the winter holidays are an opportunity to leverage metaverse experiences, chief growth officer Lee Ann Grant said. “With holiday shopping, it’s a discovery moment, and the metaverse is about discovery and exploring,” she told Retail Brew.
The more (data) the merrier: Information about consumer behavior is another key motivator for brands hoping to meet their fans in virtual realities.
Olga Dogadkina, co-founder and CEO of VR platform Emperia, said the data brands can obtain during the holidays makes the end of the year a logical first entrypoint to the metaverse.
- Brands can leverage the season’s high number of transactions to collect data and build out a metaverse strategy beyond the holidays, Dogadkina told Retail Brew.
- Singh said data collection is one of the top reasons brands are interested in exploring virtual realities in the first place. Data from metaverse experiences can also inform a brand’s strategy and merchandising, she explained.
- Babylist’s Obsess-powered holiday shopping world allows the platform to see “hotspots” where users spend the most time and track which products get the most clicks, Grant said.
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Intentional world building: Dillon said that regardless of seasonality, understanding the intended audience, and the realities of the metaverse today are essential.
“It’s customizing everything to the community that is super important,” Dillon said. “There is no one Web3 channel or one metaverse channel right now; it is a bunch of different destinations.”
Equally as important as defining an audience and selecting a virtual world for brand activation is creating a strategy that matches that world, explained Andy Zimmerman, CEO of digital consulting firm Journey, noting the distinction between brands activating in existing metaverses, and creating their own private digital experiences.
- Earlier this year, Journey partnered with Walmart to create two consumer experiences in the virtual universe Roblox, which has a more primitive, pixelated look than other platforms, but a larger user base, Zimmerman said.
- “What we tried to do with Walmart is make it playful, gamify it, make it something that is very friendly towards that Roblox vibe,” he explained.
- To extend the metaverse’s reach during the holidays, Walmart issued a physical toy catalog containing QR codes that direct users into the store’s virtual world, and is selling Robux gift cards (Roblox’s digital currency) in physical stores, Zimmerman said. “The parents may not…be in those environments, but they sure as heck are spending a lot of money on behalf of their children in those environments.”
Early adopters: Despite the enthusiasm of some big-name brands for holiday metaverse experiences, Zimmerman said the metaverse will be even more prominent next year.
“I haven’t seen as much for the holidays as I would have thought, but I think it’s just because the market is still at a very early stage,” he explained. “I think what’s happened is this is the year where people are getting into the metaverse…A lot of these companies are still really really, you know, dipping their toe at this point. And it’s a complicated world.”—MA