Insights: Future of commerce in the metaverse era

The metaverse opens up entirely new possibilities for the world of commerce. Being a new digital medium, it has the potential to reshape the customer experience with brands who are brave to pioneer this new frontier. As the metaverse continues to mature and evolve into an accessible, vibrant global marketplace, it can power up the next iteration of shopping and customer experience in brand new ways.

E-commerce and the metaverse

Despite the global success of e-commerce utilising the current iteration of the internet, there are several processes and customer experiences that can be improved upon to generate even greater growth. One distinct setback of e-commerce is that the customer loses certain perspectives on physical products. Interacting with retailers via a two-dimensional digital interface changes how customers are able to view and interact with products.

The metaverse restores that three dimensional paradigm – the original perspective that customers originally had with brick and mortar commerce experiences. As more companies and brands enter the metaverse to take advantage of this three-dimensional digital medium, customers will begin to see a combination of the best of both digital and physical shopping experiences within a new medium.

First off, customers engaging in e-commerce within the metaverse will still gain the benefits of digital shopping in terms of speed and convenience. Additionally, the metaverse also offers benefits found within physical stores in the personalisation and 3D experience that offers better perspectives on products for customers. For example, customers shopping for vehicles will be able to see personalised, accurately modelled vehicles in the metaverse versus simple, two dimensional websites. The same goes for clothing brands and other products. The metaverse offers customers unique experiences and the ability to engage with brands in an entirely new way.

Current insights on e-commerce in the metaverse era

The most important note to make on e-commerce and the metaverse is the fact that there is already substantial demand within the metaverse for digital retail. One of the best examples to date is with global clothing brand Nike’s efforts thus far. Nike opened a metaverse-based store and as of 2022, attracted nearly seven million unique visitors, generating millions of dollars in income.

Another prime example within the clothing retail sector is the success of Decentraland Fashion Week. The event attracted dozens of global fashion brands into the metaverse, setting up shops and showcases that led to over 300,000 unique attendees over the course of the three-day festival. The event finished off with a 70 per cent conversion rate on digital items and led to over $5m in generated income via rental and creative work.

Both of these examples demonstrate that the demand for digital commerce is real in the metaverse and can already be successful. As more businesses and brands begin to adopt the metaverse as a legitimate medium, this will lead to even more sophisticated, globally accessible metaverse experiences tailored to e-commerce being created. Over time, this gives metaverse users substantially more options with which to participate in metaverse-based e-commerce. Not only will this continue to fuel growth of e-commerce as a percentage of global commerce, but it will also begin to allow the metaverse to grow as a greater percentage of online sales overall.

Pioneers will outperform the market

As the metaverse continues to see global interest, adoption and development, it will continue to evolve into the go-to platform for users to learn about and shop for novel physical, digital, and phygital products and services from leading brands. The metaverse being an immersive, digital, three-dimensional space offers highly unique opportunities for human connection and coordination – most prominently between customers and brands. This allows far greater relationships to be forged between stakeholders and represents the greatest opportunity for brands to create a distinct, global footprint in the most significant technological development since the internet.

Countless research has been conducted that suggests the metaverse as a new digital medium will represent trillions of dollars in future value. With the legitimacy and importance of e-commerce continuing to grow as a portion of global commerce, e-commerce will undoubtedly be a major factor in that growth in the metaverse era.

Sam Huber is the CEO at LandVault

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