These virtual storefronts allow brands to differentiate themselves from the sameness of the typical e-commerce experience of scrolling through a simple list of product photos, she said. And consumers tend to spend more time exploring these virtual retail locations than they would on a typical brand website. American Girl, for instance, has seen 1000% longer shopping sessions through its virtual store than the brand’s other e-commerce platforms, Singh said.
Younger consumers, especially, are increasingly interested in purchasing digital items to adorn their virtual avatars in the metaverse, said Stan Georgiev, head of strategic partnerships at Ready Player Me, a platform that creates avatars that can translate across different virtual experiences.
For consumers like his 7-year-old daughter, “the virtual world is equally positioned—if not better positioned, as far as emotional attachment goes—as the physical world,” he said. And marketers are leaning into this blurring between the physical and digital worlds, with brands releasing virtual items that come with real-world perks, or physical items that give consumers access to a metaverse equivalent of that product, he said.
Wrangler, for example, partnered with singer-songwriter Leon Bridges and NFT project Deadfellaz on a real-life clothing line that also involved metaverse wearables. And Tommy Hilfiger introduced four virtual items at Metaverse Fashion Week in March that consumers could also purchase physical versions of.
“It’s no longer just small experiments that brands are doing, but this is starting to become a new mode of shopping for a lot of customers—especially for a younger audience,” Singh said.