One of the more persistent visions for our future is one where our life takes place, to no small degree, in virtual reality. Futurists, trend forecasters, science fiction writers, and technological innovators envision an immersive, 3-D digital environment that we can enter at our leisure. This would be an iteration of the internet, facilitated by the use of VR headsets, in which we can essentially live an alternate life— one where we're represented by curated, digital avatars in a curated, digital space.
This space is referred to as the metaverse.
What's interesting is that the metaverse has been threatening to become the new normal for a while now. In truth, virtual reality is an old concept that's been continually repackaged throughout cycles of marketing hype as something cutting-edge, extraordinary, and life-changing. The metaverse has been a practical— albeit underwhelming— reality in the gaming industry for almost thirty years. In 1995, Nintendo released the Virtual Boy— a head-mounted console that used a parallax effect to display 3-D stereoscopic graphics. The Virtual Boy was both a critical and commercial failure, and within a year the product was discontinued. That same year, the PC games Active Worlds and The Palace pioneered the use of player-avatars in virtual worlds, and in 2003 the game Second Life expanded on this to become what is popularly considered the first metaverse.
VR technology has improved a lot since then— but even within the realm of video games, it remains a niche. If you were to conduct a survey of shoppers in your local high street, how many would claim to own— or even know about— modern VR devices such as the Valve Index or the Oculus Quest? Not many I'd wager. And it's the relative unfamiliarity of the metaverse among the buying public that sees it perpetually recycled as a marketing buzzword that dangles the prospect of science fiction tropes becoming a lived reality. This usually involves VR extending beyond the gaming sphere and being applied to more mundane aspects of our lives, such as education, healthcare, or e-commerce.
Allow us to cut through the marketing fluff and assess what the metaverse could mean for you as either a consumer or a business.
Technological Revolution or Passing Trend?
The temptation when presented with a flashy technological breakthrough is to imagine its effect in absolute terms— that it will revolutionise the way we live our everyday lives and definitively replace whatever came before it. No sooner had e-readers been previewed to buying markets than people were boldly predicting the death of print books. But after an initial surge in popularity, the sale of e-books plateaued, the sale of print books returned to normal levels, and the two began to coexist within the publishing market. What's important to keep in mind is the value proposition of a given product or service— and who exactly are the chief beneficiaries of this value.
E-readers, for example, provide immense value to people with greater accessibility needs, given the way users can customise their experience. Something similar seems likely with metaverse shopping, where it holds down a place in the ecommerce landscape without supplanting it— not so much becoming the norm, but a viable alternative in a world of ever-increasing options.
So what might this look like?
The Pros and Cons of Metaverse Shopping
The value of metaverse shopping varies according to two contextual factors— the industry and the consumer. Let's use fashion as an example for industry and people with mobility issues for the latter. With fashion retailers, the metaverse offers consumers the opportunity to virtually try on an item of clothing— giving them greater confidence in their purchase than they would browsing a website. For consumers with mobility issues, the metaverse offers them the chance to negate their limitations and fully interact with a store from the comfort of their home. In these two examples, you can see how the metaverse might deliver a greater benefit according to contextual circumstances. Its convenience in these cases is undeniable— but is that convenience universal?
Given that metaverse shopping ostensibly solves the trade-off between brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce websites (providing the direct product interaction of the former and the expediency of the latter), it's easy to see why people might assume that it will become the new normal. However, when we take into account the practical implications of VR technology as it exists today, it's difficult to imagine the metaverse occupying more than a niche role in the e-commerce landscape. As it stands, VR headsets are hardly affordable for the average consumer, and so businesses will likely be reticent to invest in a channel that only a few customers will have access to.
And to return to our two contextual factors, not every industry or consumer receives a worthwhile benefit from shopping in the metaverse. For products that don't need to be assessed for size and scale (such as books, small electronics, toiletries, etc), then going through the rigmarole of putting on a VR headset is simply less efficient than quickly ordering them from an e-commerce site with a couple of clicks. It should be remembered that technological progress is, more often than not, geared toward expediency; streamlining existing processes and making life easier for the consumer. In the context of trying on a wedding suit or seeing how a new bedframe might fit into a room, then using a VR headset provides enough of a benefit for people to make the effort. But for a lot of products, entering the metaverse adds an unnecessary layer of complexity to a process that is already quite simple.
In 2017, an SXSW tech demo showcasing a virtual avatar shopping in a digitized Walmart went viral on social media. Touted as the "future of grocery shopping" by influencers, the demo was widely ridiculed for its janky physics and visuals. There was a sense among consumers that it was decadent and gimmicky, and the question was asked whether grocery shopping really benefitted from being conducted in a metaverse simulation. If we look at how online grocery shopping has improved over the past few years, then the idea of doing so via the metaverse seems even more obsolete. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, online grocery shopping has surged in popularity— chiefly due to the way it saves users time by letting them order groceries with a simple click on a website or an app. And with advances in AI software giving rise to more sophisticated chatbots for these sites and apps, where is the need for the metaverse?
It would seem that the metaverse— as we know it today— could best be utilised by companies whose products consumers still prefer to buy in-person rather than online (such as clothes or furniture). There are also more theoretical benefits; were the metaverse to truly become mainstream, companies could potentially reduce their overheads by opting for a virtual storefront in place of brick-and-mortar real estate. As to whether removing physical stores would hurt a brand's value, only time will tell.
Brands Currently Using the Metaverse
- Roblox
- Shopify
- Facebook (Meta)
- Gucci
- Samsung
- Nike
- Tinder
- Microsoft
- NVIDIA
- Apple
- Tencent
Final Thoughts
As it stands, it would seem that while there's not enough convincing evidence that metaverse shopping will live up to its marketing hype, there is enough to comfortably assume that it will become a more familiar sight in the e-commerce landscape. One thing we can be quite sure of is that our world is becoming more and more digitized. And while the metaverse is a fairly old, fundamentally unchanged idea at this point, the technology undoubtedly stands on firmer ground now than it did when Second Life launched in 2003.
Major corporations are investing in the metaverse, yet the public by and large remain sceptical or simply disinterested. A recent report by Productsup indicates that 60% of consumers have zero interest in buying from the metaverse. However, that same report projects metaverse revenue to reach $800 billion in 2024, which explains why major brands such as Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Facebook are eager to secure their market share. To demonstrate just how serious their commitment to the metaverse is, Facebook officially rebranded itself in 2021 to Meta Platforms. For these big metaverse investors to win the buying public over, then VR headsets have to become lighter and more affordable, with better visuals and faster networks. Above all, in today's fast-paced attention economy, the metaverse must be noticeably easier and more convenient than the processes it aims to replace.
As it stands, companies see the metaverse as the future of e-commerce, but consumers remain unconvinced. However, both of these factors can change in quick and unexpected ways. The biggest mistake you can make when predicting the future is to assume that current trends will simply continue in much the same way as they do now.
