Moving on to Metaverse Commerce- The Way Metaverse is Changing the Shape of E Commerce

Metaverse is a very commonly used term in contemporary times, but people usually wonder ‘What Exactly is the Metaverse?’ Imagine yourself exploring a deep blue ocean, when the actual reality is that you are sitting in your living room. The word Metaverse is a combination of two words; Meta and verse, where ‘Meta’ in Greek means beyond and ‘verse’ means the totality of something. It is a 3D virtual world, which has the capability to enable the creation of an interactive virtual equivalent of our physical world.

The origin of ‘The Metaverse’

Metaverse as a term originated in the year 1992 in a science fiction novel ‘Snow Crash’ which was written by Neil Stephenson. Metaverse in contemporary times is being used for various activities like entertain, educate, play, shop, socialize and trade.

Metaverse Commerce

Now let’s take a deep dive into Metaverse Commerce, which looks at providing a 3d Virtual reality Shopping experience for the users. ‘Flipverse’ created a huge buzz in the tech and e commerce industry in the year 2022. Flipverse was launched by Flipkart in collaboration with eDAO to bring forth a virtual shopping experience in the Metaverse. Flipverse allows brands to manage the launch of their unique products in the virtual world which helps in creating an engaging experience for the users.

Are Physical Stores Important for a Shopper?

Physical stores have seen huge investments in the past years, as they provide the real shopping experience to a customer. Customers who are in love with a certain brand love to watch the displayed items in the store and this gives them the actual satisfaction while shopping for what they actually want. Will Metaverse provide similar satisfaction to a customer or will it just be another hype in the e commerce market? It is too early to say anything on that front, but we can surely look at the latest developments that have happened in this innovative sphere.

What Characteristics Make Metaverse a Right Fit for the E- Commerce Business?

Metaverse world is Social and Interactive, and this makes it easy for the users to share thoughts and opinions across the platform. It works on taking and ‘Avatar’ and an Avatar can perform any kind of activity that is meant for the user in the virtual world.

It provides the user with an easy access. Imagine shopping for something you like in the virtual world through your smartphone or laptop. Hardware meant for use in The Metaverse is relatively simple and this makes it easily accessible for the user.

Metaverse offers a connection between the real and the virtual world, and this makes it a unique platform. It looks at providing a rich and immersive experience to the user which in turn promotes interaction and engagement.

The strength of the Metaverse lies in the fact that it works on ‘user- generated’ content, which generally shapes up the whole concept behind Selling and Marketing a business. People involved with a particular Metaverse platform get an opportunity to create their own interactive content. They also have the authority to improve their content and share it with other users belonging to the same virtual community.

It provides the users with an opportunity to trade, sell, shop and play with the help of non- fungible tokens (NFT’s) and cryptocurrencies

Future of Metaverse Commerce

Consumers of today like to shop online and this is the reason why online platforms for shopping, games and hosting events have gained a huge popularity in the recent times. There are certain features that make Metaverse Commerce a profitable reality for the businesses and the users:

Companies are using Augmented Reality (AR) to showcase their products to the customers. AR technology helps a user to try on new clothes or play a game as an Avatar and this increases the confidence level of the customers in the product.

Cryptocurrency and Digital Wallets make it extremely easy for the customers to shop in the virtual world. It has nothing do with your bank accounts in the actual world, as the transactions done by a customer are recorded in the virtual world only.

Metaverse provides very innovative ways of engaging and entertaining the customers. Presence of AR/VR showrooms and various immersive and entertaining experiences through virtual reality make it a unique platform for selling.

Metaverse provides the companies with an innovative advertising platform. Brands can showcase their new products on the Metaverse platform and through storytelling an organization can create a whole new world for the audience.

Metaverse Commerce might gain huge popularity in the future, but nothing can be said right now with a strong confirmative view about its success. Apart from the doubts related to its success it is definitely an innovative and interesting platform which owes its origin and development to recent technological innovations.