The consulting firm Baufest has analyzed the possibilities that the metaverse offers retail, sector in which it is expected to have a strong impact. In this sense, Baufest created the M-Lab, a research team focused on the metaverse with which he is already studying the implications that this technology will have for people and also for data security that are shared within that universe, and will offer strategic advice to companies that want to get closer to this technology.
The metaverse proposes a virtual world in which people live, work, shop and interact with other, all from the comfort of your couch in the physical world. In this new virtual space, digital currency is used to buy various items. Therefore, it is expected to have a large number of applications and consequences on retail activity.
As Baufest explains, the metaverse is “a set of virtual experiences generated from augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies where the individual can interact with other people and/or objects, and even acquire virtual goods through an avatar. With the development of the metaverse, the aim is to extend the real world to the virtual world, turning the most everyday actions into a spectacle”.
Observe and Understand: Big Opportunity for Retailers
From the technological consultancy they emphasize that “brands and retailers should pay attention to the developments and possibilities around the metaverse”, since this new world is presented as a new marketing channel that challenges the classic canons of advertising and fosters a different way of connecting with the consumer. In addition, this initiative establishes new limits for retail trade and “heralds the appearance of gamevertisinthat is, of virtual worlds called to become true advertising battlefields”.
For retailers, mastering the metaverse and its dynamics will be a path to mastering a new way of interacting and connecting with people, particularly younger generations.
Therefore, from this perspective, retailers they must be present in this space and they will have to listen, observe and understand your audience and their new consumption habits, because your future success will lie therein. In addition, together with this, they must contemplate an exhaustive analysis of their business data to understand it, also in this area.
complex universe
It is estimated that at least 70% of the big brands will have a presence in the metaverse in the next five years. In this sense, the same will be done by the large retail chains.
Some advertisers affirm that to be successful in this new situation “the metaverse must be considered as a virtual realm into which the individual enters to escape from the real world”. That means brands should not create “anything resembling advertising as we know it.”but they will have to understand a complex universe, “composed of not one, but dozens of metaverses”, indicates Baufest.
In short, the revolution of the metaverse promises a digital customer experience in which the virtual world and the real world intertwine and merge under a single reality. And from this point of view, brands and retailers will have to find their place in it and explore the potential to expand their business in the metaverse.
