The Metaverse And The Shopping Experience

Let us examine the opportunities that metaverses and NFTs present retailers, and how these
groundbreaking technologies could transform the customer experience. The metaverse has
opportunities for brands to deliver compelling, innovative customer experiences to customers.
Beyond staying on top, the metaverse allows brands to interact with consumers like never before.
Furthermore, the metaverse provides brands the ability to build experiences that increase brand
recognition, which in turn increases customer loyalty, due to that improved relationship. By
capitalizing on this, brands will develop stronger relationships and brand awareness, while also
setting themselves up for a metaverse-heavy customer experience in the future.

As new communities arise and interact within the metaverse, brands need to find ways to define and
connect with them across the media representing the next generation of internet, which integrates,
and extends beyond, existing channels of mobile, social, and voice commerce. The metaverse will
impact not just the way brands work and engage, the way consumers act and consume content.
Brands who master the metaverse well will combine digital wallets, games, and mixed reality, as
well as digital storytelling and new forms of engagement--a sort of 360-degree retailing. If
consumers are already demanding more tech-enabled shopping experiences, and greater authenticity
in the brands that they buy from, then Meta can only imagine the expectations they will
have from the fully realized metaverse.

In the metaverse, the lines between physical and digital retailing will be blurred: Nearly half of the
30-somethings (48%) expect experiences that mimic the feel of shopping at physical stores. The
metaverses implementation will enable customers to experience shopping physically, right in their
own homes. Metaverse allows customers to participate in an immersive shopping experience,
moving seamlessly between virtual and physical environments, contributing to retailers
omnichannel approaches. In the metaverse, brands can customize a virtual world to emphasize their
brands vision, share their brand narratives in a unique way, and attract customers to the retail
experience unlike any other. As digital avatars will mirror our personalities and present us in a
virtual world, avatars powered by artificial intelligence will play an important role in the metaverse
experience. With Nike and Walmart taking some of the early steps in the metaverse in terms of
retail, it is worthwhile looking at them for direction and tactics; focusing on details and making sure
that you deliver a compelling experience will be critical to brands being able to build a retail
experience that is unmatched, even in a virtual world.
One leading provider of Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR), ByondXR, has seen customer
engagement spike by as much as 400% with custom, immersive retail experiences that they design
for retail customers.2 With a Statista study showing that 74% of adults in the US have joined, or are
considering joining, a metaverse,3 it seems nearly inevitable that opportunities to wow a customer
in exciting new ways a grow exponentially. No-one can be sure of the future of retail in the
metaverse, given the early stages that we are at in this evolving digital universe, but Adcock
Solutions is excited about exploring sensory marketing opportunities within the VR space and
helping brands deliver memorable customer experiences. Consumers will be able to seamlessly
transition from shop to shop, as well as to other parts of a retail location within the metaverse
(coffee shops, cinemas, parks), receiving a fully immersive experience.

Sources:
https://acowebs.com/metaverse-shopping/
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consulting/articles/future-of-retail-customer-experience-in-
the-metaverse.html
https://www.ey.com/en_gl/consumer-products-retail/meet-customers-in-the-metaverse-to-unlock-
lasting-value
https://medium.com/cappasity-blog/how-nfts-and-the-metaverse-transform-customer-experience-
cdb4495683b7
https://www.lxahub.com/stories/how-will-the-metaverse-revolutionise-immersive-customer-
experiences