eCommerce in the Metaverse - Vcom
There is a lot of confusion about ecom in the MV so we wanted to set out our view point for brands considering a strategy in this space.
The first thing to understand is that ecom in a closed world like Roblox or Minecraft is completely different from a Decentralised world like The sandbox or an MV you make yourself. If you want to sell product in centralised worlds then you need to make digital items out of their tools and pay fees. And if you want to link out and sell normal product then good luck. You need to do a deal with the owner of that world and they will charge you a lot and limit your activity. eCom isn’t really an profit option in those worlds, its more a promotional mechanic where you can interact with their tens of millions of users.
The block chain worlds such as Decentraland / The sandbox and even ‘purpose built’ ecom virtual worlds like bzar.com make it much easier.
In the former 2 you can see product in the world and link out and buy with a normal credit card - seamlessly - that’s the example above of DressX, see, click, buy with fiat currency. With bzar.com they also give brands the space complimentary and then take percentage of the fee.
Note I havnt’t spoken about crypto or NFTs yet? That because we believe the vast majority of payments in the MV will be in traditional currency.
Crypto and NFT are only useful if the transaction is about identifying a digital asset or a complex contract. Most purchases don’t need that. Also there are problems with the time it takes for large volumes of NFT transactions to be minted / executed and then there are gas issues. (Ask me on a DM if you want that explained) - these problems will be partially solved over time but they are issues.
if you want to create a loyalty program, or give an NFT to someone who buys a high ticket item as a bonus then great, but using crypto to pay for a can of Coke - that’s a bit silly. So don’t get distracted.
Where ecom starts to make sense as a strategy is thinking about the collapsing of the funnel. If you create a compelling , immersive experience, then you can deliver the awareness, consideration, aspiration and purchase all at once - nice. But to make it really compelling, as opposed to a simple store front, but instead a hi res experience, you need to make your own verse. In Decentraland etc the experiences are limited in terms of tech and hi res beauty due to streaming limitations - but this will change and new worlds like Wilderworld aim to have much richer experiences that you might want to make a compelling brand ecom exprience in. www.wilderworld.com
The strategy we like is to create awareness of your product with the audience in the Decentralised world, then link out to a more compelling experience, BUT, remember that means you are not taking your Avatar from the Decentralised platform to your own - we are talking with platforms about enabling our clients to do that, but its not there yet.
When you can do this, link your Avatar from a Decentralised verse to your own, a high poly, immersive brand world, then we are cooking - and that’s what we are working on..
Any questions / challenges on the above then DM me.
Stay Virtual
Dudley