Amazon and Walmart have announced new virtual shopping experiences. Amazon offers an immersive website feature that takes consumers on a virtual campus tour of Godolkin University from Prime Video’s “The Boys” spinoff “Gen V” laden with Easter-eggs and housing a shoppable campus store. Walmart launched a metaverse game, House Flip, that’s been taking on more commercial proportions.
In a blog post, Thomas Kang, vp and general manager, Metaverse commerce, Store No. 8, Walmart’s tech-focused concept incubator, noted that financial services giant Citi estimates that the total market for metaverse-related commercial activity will be between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030, with total metaverse users numbering around five billion. He wrote that Walmart sees the growth and expansion of increasingly immersive virtual worlds as not only a chance to develop new ways to engage with customers but also as an opportunity to experiment with a new type of commerce.
As such, Walmart teamed up with game developer Fun-Gi earlier this year on House Flip, a mobile game available on iOS or Android, that allows players to renovate and sell virtual homes. Walmart gave players the ability to virtually test certain Glidden paint colors sold at Walmart. The game generated more than 12 million impressions for the Glidden brand over the first six months, Kang noted
Now, Walmart is introducing the ability to purchase physical items natively in the game, either those used to decorate a virtual house or discovered in the course of playing the game. To make a purchase, players can access a Walmart account without leaving the virtual world. In a corresponding move, the company is adding new décor items under its Mainstays and Better Homes and Gardens brands in a Walmart in-game landmark that players can browse and purchase.
The company already has entered the virtual fashion segment with its clothing brand Scoop taking over the fashion space, Runway Z, within the mobile virtual world ZEPETO. Now players can purchase virtual goods for their avatars based on Scoop’s designs. Over the first month after launch, Walmart experienced increased user engagement in Runway Z and purchases of virtual Scoop clothing items, a first for Walmart, according to Kang.
With a projected 3 billion participants spanning all geographies and demographics, Kang pointed out, virtual worlds and games represent the fastest-growing category of entertainment, which gives Walmart the chance to redesign the shopping experience and invent the future of retail. The company expects to build commerce in virtual worlds and experiences for everyone, accessible via any device, that align with its digital priorities and meet customer needs, Kang maintained.
Amazon is giving consumers the chance to immerse themselves further into the world of the Prime Video series “Gen V” by visiting the series’ detail page where they can extend their journey into Gen V’s Godolkin University via an immersive Virtual Campus Tour loaded with Easter eggs and featuring a Virtual Campus Store.
The virtual tour leads to the student union, the company indicated, which houses the campus store where shoppers can purchase various products including Godolkin University merchandise and dorm room products, the company explained. Consumers in the United States can click on any of the 150 Items Amazon currently offers in the virtual tour then hit Buy Now to complete their purchases. U.S. fans can shop hundreds of officially licensed products from The Boys franchise on the Amazon website, including Gen V items, according to Amazon.
