Why Home Depot is entering the metaverse now

It might seem like a strange time for a retailer to be entering the metaverse. It might seem even stranger if that retailer is Home Depot.

But that’s exactly what the home-improvement giant is doing, with an activation in Roblox that aims to recreate its in-person workshops for kids.

In a digital remake of the iconic brick-and-mortar store (parking lot, orange-clad associates, and hanging orange aisle signs included), players collect the materials needed to build a birdhouse, a planter box, or a car. All of the items, once completed, can then leave the Home Depot store and be used elsewhere in Roblox.

Briar Waterman, Home Depot’s head of creative, said the metaverse is actually a natural place for the retailer to be, particularly considering the behavior of its younger generations of shoppers, who find inspiration for home-improvement projects in new places.

“More and more of our consumers are growing up natively with digital,” Waterman said, “We see a lot of dreaming [and] aspiration happening in digital.”

A grand experiment

Waterman said his team keeps a close eye on emerging technology trends and how other retailers are using them, but isn’t concerned with being trailblazers.

The creative and strategy teams discussed metaverse and retail activations regularly in monthly meetings focused on innovation and changes to existing digital platforms, he explained. But it wasn’t until last year—when Home Depot brought its kids workshops, which had been held virtually during the pandemic, back into stores—that the team landed on a project idea.

“We did not want to be a digital convenience store,” Waterman said. “Once we figured out this idea of doing project-based building, that felt right.”

The process of building Home Depot in the metaverse, from ideation to activation, took around nine months, Waterman said. Three of those were focused on designing the virtual space itself, which included making decisions about what language to use (are users looking for “lumber” or “wood” for example), how many aisles to include, and what store associates would look like.

Building across channels: Waterman said the Roblox activation is really an expansion of Home Depot’s omnichannel experience.

“We see that broadly, people are using our digital channels, people are using our app a lot of times, before they enter the store,” he explained. “That’s a very unique advantage we have…we have [a] strong retail presence with super helpful associates and we have a very strong digital platform..”

Waterman and his team aren’t sure what to expect from the activation, which he says they’re using as a baseline for future projects, but are eagerly awaiting engagement data like time spent in the experience and which projects players gravitate toward.

And they’re not leaving it completely up to chance: The Roblox experience promotes live, in-store events, while those same events promote the Roblox experience, via QR codes attendees can scan.

“We’re interested to see if we can start to create this transfer between physical stores and this metaverse type of experience,” Waterman said.

“Many of these kids who are on Roblox, their parents are millennials,” he added. “It’s really making sure that the brand is top of mind and relevant within the consumers’ lives, and that they understand that we’re more than just a source of products, but for projects, for all sorts of projects.”