Roadmap of Introducing Metaverse in your Ecommerce Business

The internet brought a radical change in the way businesses operate around the world through a massive digital transformation using eCommerce. It has entirely changed how a user connects, shops, experiences, and live. Over the past few months, the ‘Metaverse’ has emerged as a fascinating trend, and the buzz has taken the world by storm, thanks to Facebook. The company introduced ‘Meta,’ bringing together all the apps and technologies under one new company brand. This showcased company’s interest in building Metaverse to deliver ultimate user experiences.

No sooner have large enterprises started displaying interest in developing their own metaverse platforms to capture audience attention as its applications are limitless for now. In a metaverse, users can create an avatar and engage in a wide array of virtual activities like meeting, shopping, and interacting with other people (their avatars).

Hefty budgets are flowing into the Metaverse development, and domain experts believe the trend is going to bounce in the future due to the soaring attention of celebs, athletes, businesses, etc. According to statistics, the global Metaverse market size is expected to reach USD 1,607 billion in 2030 at a CAGR of 43.3% during the forecast period (2022–2030).

Metaverse commerce is escalating rapidly, and brands are reaping substantial benefits from the technology. For instance, eCommerce giant Amazon integrated early metaverse technologies into its marketplace. Amazon Metaverse includes an AR shopping tool, “Room Decorator,” that allows you to use your phone and see what furniture and other decorative items will look like in your space. Also, you can view multiple products together and even save screenshots to review later.

Why is Metaverse Important for eCommerce?

Metaverse has the potential to overcome the challenges of eCommerce, improve its current state, and create unique experiences for the customers. Here are a few benefits that Metaverse offers:

Personalized Experience

Personalization in eCommerce is often limited to product recommendations and best offers. In Metaverse commerce, brands can offer their customers hyper-personalized experiences overcoming the challenges of the physical world.

Stronger Engagement

When more customers actively participate in your brand, you can build a stronger relationship with them. eCommerce allows brands to connect with their customers and create experiences that help build new and lasting relationships with them. You can incorporate AI into your virtual shopping experience to deliver real-time customer support.

Reduced Return Rates

eCommerce stores experience a higher return rate of products and involve a hefty cost in transition. Creating virtual experiences will help users to ‘experience before purchase’ that will help them make their purchase decision, and virtual stores will experience reduced return rates.

Understanding Customers

Marketing aims to understand your customers and create content that keeps them interested in your product. With eCommerce in the Metaverse, you can create virtual collections, launch them, and see the potential success of the products without actually making them. For instance, if the customers love the products in the metaverse space, businesses can analyze the production rate of each product.

How to Get Started with Metaverse eCommerce Business?

The metaverse future involves eCommerce on a large scale. Gartner predicts that 25% of people will spend at least one hour per day in the Metaverse by 2026. With a growing userbase and wide adoption, businesses are diving into developments that are moving rapidly. To beat the competition, you need to get started immediately to stay on top in the future of eCommerce. Here’s how you can leverage the underlying technologies to create value for your organization.

3D Models

3D models are the backbone of immersive content, and these can be made in six unique ways. Each way involves a different level of cost, utility, and skills. For instance, Amazon’s metaverse strategy includes creating immersive 3D models to provide better experiences. Here are the six common ways:

• 3D Modelling with Blender, Maya, Cinema 4D
• Professional LiDAR with BLK360
• 3D Asset Stores like Sketchfab, Turbosquid, and CG Trader
• Consumer LiDAR
• Photogrammetry for capturing reality
• CAD modeling with AutoCAD and Solidworks

A perfect example of Metaverse eCommerce is Walmart which has shown its interest in Metaverse. A few years back, the brand released a video about what it would be like to shop at Walmart in the Metaverse. It includes a whole Walmart Metaverse shopping mall with aisles and an assistant to help you with the product details. Depending on the users, you can pick items to add to your cart or remove them.

Avatars

Avatars play a crucial role in the Metaverse future. Businesses must understand how they can represent themselves in the virtual world. Avatar development is the buzz to enter the Metaverse eCommerce world. Avatars range from blocky characters like Roblox to cartoon characters in Wolf3D and photorealistic beings like MetaHuman. Avatars are vital to human-to-human interaction and will bring unlimited opportunities.

NFTs

For the last few years, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been a trend. NFTs allow the artists to share their work with millions of people while allowing a few to own the digital asset. NFTs rise will be surprisingly more with the rise of the creator economy in the eCommerce Metaverse. Players will be able to carry their avatar and virtual goods across the platform, which will also define the ownership.

Payments

Payments play an important role in the Metaverse eCommerce as users want to experience a seamless, fluent, and trustworthy shopping experience. Finance organizations like Mastercard are pioneering a new model, Labs as a Service (LaaS), to make the payments smoother. You can incorporate such models to deliver unique experiences to the customers of the virtual world.

Game Engines

Game Engines are creator platforms where you can take the 3D assets like models and environments to create fully interactive experiences that can be shared with billions of people. Here are some common game engines you can look into:

• Unreal Engine: From the makers of Epic Games and Fortnite, this game engine focuses on AAA-based games. You can build Hollywood movie games and deliver engaging experiences.
• Unity: The tool has a market capitalization of over USD 30 billion and powers more than 60% of all mobile apps and games.
• MetaVRse: This game engine is 100% web-based and is a relatively new player in the market. With its amazing features, you can publish your application directly on the web without having to deal with app store permissions or commissions.

Conclusion

Metaverse promises to push the boundaries of the physical world and allows users to create and interact with digital content and experiences. The Metaverse eCommerce concept will definitely change the consumer experience moving from click and buy to experience and buy. If you are still thinking about how to prepare for the Metaverse, it’s time you look for the best Metaverse development services provider that can help you with impeccable solutions and help you explore the world of possibilities and opportunities.