Last year, the concept of " metaverse " became extremely popular, which to a certain extent changed the development and sales methods of the online and offline retail industry. Those who are most interested in the "Metaverse" are undoubtedly the millennials and Generation Z who have taken over the banner of the main consumer force. The Internet accompanies their birth and growth. In the cognitive and learning stages, the Internet is an indispensable part of their lives.
Since its birth, virtual technology has also influenced global e-commerce trade in all aspects including customer experience, omni-channel sales, product innovation, brand marketing, and community management.
Source: Internet
9% of people have purchased fashion products in the metaverse
Recently, fashion/lifestyle commerce platform Centra studied 2,000 British shoppers and came up with a report called "How your brand can realize its full potential on a global scale". The report contains some content about the Metaverse: 9% of British shoppers of all ages have purchased fashion products in the Metaverse, and Millennials and Generation Z are the main groups most willing to purchase fashion products through the Metaverse instead of traditional retail.
Survey results show that men are twice as likely as women to buy fashion products in the metaverse. About 21% of Millennials and another 19% of Gen Z consumers say they have purchased an NFT or digital fashion asset. Regarding the purchase of fashion NFTs, 38% of consumers who have purchased it regard it as an investment, while this proportion has increased to 46% among Generation Z shoppers.
Metaverse Fashion = New Status Symbol
There are also many people who buy fashion products in the Metaverse just because they find them novel and interesting. They believe that owning digital assets is a new social status symbol.
For example, 31% of respondents said they would consider new digital products launched by their favorite brands. 28% simply enjoy owning things in the virtual world. Thirty-one percent of Gen Z shoppers said their desire to dress up their online avatars was the main reason for buying NFTs; another 23% wanted their online avatars to be as well-dressed as they were in the real world.
In this regard, many fashion brands are also sparing no effort to lay out virtual stores.
For example, last year, Nike acquired RTFKT, the development company of virtual shoes and clothing NTF, and launched the Metaverse flagship store Nikeland on Roblox. Gucci also announced that the brand will open an online concept store "Gucci Vault" on the virtual land purchased in Sandbox. The brand hopes to use this opportunity to promote physical merchandise sales and sell virtual versions of its products to Metaverse users.
(Source: Nikeland)
Conversely, 34% of people said they like to own physical fashion clothing, but do not want to own fashion digitally.
In addition, 39% of all British shoppers surveyed believe that people's daily social interaction through Internet images will become the norm in the next two years, and 44% believe that this normalization will take longer, probably within five years.
While more than a quarter (27%) believe NFTs are the future of fashion, remaining UK shoppers remain skeptical about the longevity of fashion sold in the Metaverse. About 29% of people said that they think fashion NFT is a fashion that will become outdated, while 25% of people do not believe in the meaning of this fashion at all. Another 24% believe NFTs are just a gimmick used by fashion brands to sell more “stuff” to shoppers.
Centra CEO and co-founder Martin Jensen said: “The virtual world is still evolving – you could say it’s still changing shape as retailers and brands try to seize the next dimension of opportunity that retail has to offer.While the Metaverse is not yet in its final form, it is certainly real for consumers who have already shown a need for digital fashion and have already purchased it. ”
Seize all the tools available
At present, many cross-border e-commerce sellers and online promotion platforms are gradually taking shape in the construction of virtual shopping tools. For example, Shopfiy’s free 3D tool Size.link, which we mentioned in a previous article, can abstract Digital information visualization, 1:1 simulation of the real product size to create a 3D box, projected into the real life scene captured through the lens
In addition, the newly launched function of and Google also has a tool to help merchants build 3D models of products more quickly and easily. tml5 There is no doubt that the emergence of the metaverse is setting off a new era wave, but how long will it take for the virtual world to be as popular as the current Internet? Can the experience of virtual scenes be extremely immersive? Everything is still unknown, but what is certain is that the development of virtual technology will become the biggest booster for the development of e-commerce in the future, making online shopping more natural, direct and interesting. Therefore, Whale Network Cross-Border recommends that sellers with ideas can pay more attention to the trend of virtual shopping and the use of 3D tools that have been launched to maximize the shopping experience of their own independent sites.
