You might have heard of the word ‘metaverse’ via Mr. Zuckerberg or earlier. The metaverse is not a cross-century future. A study shows that 30% of companies and organisations across the world will have metaverse products and services by 2026.
So, what is the metaverse, and why would it be a crucial part of the immediate future?
Let’s quickly go over this concept. The metaverse is a virtual world that facilitates the convergence of virtual environments, digital items, and real people. People have imagined various pictures about the metaverse, for instance, we would feel our friends are just sitting next to us when interacting with XR glasses.
The metaverse certainly represents a fantastic future. However, we have a lot further to go. The metaverse is a broad vision that involves multiple technologies to work together seamlessly. High-performance networks, advanced computing, hardware, AR/VR, artificial intelligence, 3D modeling crypto, blockchain, IoT, and the list goes on.
SecondLive is a 3D virtual world based on digital assets, providing inhabitants with a rich mixture of the digital lifestyle. Digital asset means cryptocurrency as currency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as assets. In the future, the metaverse would become a vital part of our life, and tremendously impact ecommerce. While NFTs already exist as virtual properties, they are going to become a huge category across the world. We are confident enough to predict that the metaverse will open up new possibilities for future global ecommerce experiences.
The metaverse has many implications for ecommerce – and it’s moving from simple ‘click-and-buy’ to ‘experience-and-buy’. Online shoppers can visit virtual stores and realistically interact with products. Take Nike with Nikeland for example. Users can express themselves through fashion in their virtual showroom and don the pieces digitally, even outside Nikeland.
Ecommerce in the metaverse is already in progress: huge global marketplaces like Amazon and Alibaba are part of the metaverse. More examples are H&M’s virtual store, Virtual Gucci Garden, Hyundai Mobility Adventure, and so on.
Why are brands taking notice and testing the water? Despite making online shopping more immersive on the consumer side, below are some of the ways the metaverse will impact the ecommerce industry.
First of all, it increases revenue. The metaverse, like SecondLive, will provide customers the ability to touch, feel, and test products virtually before purchasing them, without international businesses having physical shops across the globe. Hence, improving trust from customers which eventually leads to more revenue for brands. Secondly, the return rates will decrease when the metaverse offers the same immersive experience as in-store shopping. Thirdly, it improves customer understanding of brands, by brands utilising the virtual world to carry out product-market fit and determine how much to produce before manufacturing a product. As a result, brands can reduce waste and satisfy customers better.
The most expected part is the NFT market. The metaverse won't just exist to improve physical businesses. The metaverse is just like a parallel universe where people can live a second life that's purely digital. In doing so, they would also need to purchase digital items that will aid living in this new world. Think about in-game accessories for digital avatars purchasing.
But let’s not limit our imagination to online items nowadays. Since we regard the metaverse as a second life, let’s move some real-life experiences to it. Think about tourism. In the future, we might be able to visit Paris as a collection of NFT travel packages. In this virtual Paris, we can visit the prestigious Louvre or walk down past the Lycée Henri-IV, the ancient church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, and the windswept Place du Panthéon – and cut in for shelter to the right, as it is mentioned in Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. The economic system exists in this virtual world in an exciting way. You might run into a vendor on the street corner and be attracted to their paintings – then you would buy some of them. If you are a great singer, you may hold a small concert in front of the Eiffel Tower. Or you may meet someone and decide to hang around longer, so you rent a house to see how it will go on.
There are tons of possibilities. With the metaverse, brands can enter the production of specific digital products that will cater to the needs of people in the virtual world.
All in all, the metaverse will be a milestone for global ecommerce. It might change the way we understand markets forever. Are you ready for the metaverse?
This editorial piece was first published in The Paypers' Cross-Border Payments and Ecommerce Report 2022–2023, which taps into the fast-growing cross-border market and provides a comprehensive overview of trends and developments that are pivotal in this space, being the ultimate source of information for ecommerce businesses interested in expanding globally.
Alice Liv, Co-founder of SecondLive. A serial entrepreneur with 5 years of experience in the Web 3 field. Committed to expressing the concept of ‘personal sovereignty’ to the world through products and creating a world where disadvantaged groups have more opportunities.
SecondLive: a create-to-earn open Metaverse where Web 3 inhabitants gather to facilitate self-expression, unleash creativity, and build a dreaming parallel universe. More than 1 million users are enjoying SecondLive to roam in spaces such as exhibitions, dance floors, shopping malls, workplaces, and so on.
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