As the money-making power of the internet radically changes the world economy, the economy of virtual goods generates more than a modest portion of overall global gaming revenue.
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By creating virtual experiences for shoppers such as product trials and tutorials as well as virtual store experiences like in-store navigation apps and games for shoppers, brands are both enhancing their image and yielding an impressive ROI. Notable examples of brands driving revenue in VR come from companies like Estée Lauder, MAC, Gucci, and Dior, to name only a few. These brands, and others, allegedly created AR “try-on” advertisements that successfully generated direct sales. These “try-on” ads allow app users to use their smartphone cameras to superimpose 3D digital replicas of products onto their bodies.
As a savvy marketer looking for new ways to drive revenue, you may be thinking this sounds like an excellent brand-enhancing opportunity, but how do transactions in VR work? Depending on which platform consumers are engaging on, where brands have set up shop, and whether users are making real-to-virtual or virtual-to-real transactions — will all determine how money moves across wires. The short explanation is that in some VRs, consumers can link their payment info into the app. In other instances, users are making purchases with cryptocurrencies; however, rest assured that whichever way brands are making cash in VR now — they are actually seeing those dollars in real life.
Think first — Don’t jump into Decentraland just yet While the opportunity may seem golden, don’t jump into Decentraland and set up shop just yet. It’s important to remember that consumers have typically used AR and VR for gaming only, so there is a lot to consider when thinking about VR as an interactive consumer experience, in which users actively engage with brands online in real time.
Only recently, mostly with Mark Zuckerberg’s company’s rebrand to Meta, has VR become more of a social engagement platform, allowing users to participate in VR for reasons other than gaming. Users are shopping, dining, socializing, etc. There is no doubt that money is being spent, and investors are reaping the profits. Domino’s is taking pizza orders in the Metaverse, to deliver actual pizza to customers’ doorsteps in real life, and Gucci, using an NFT method, is engaging shoppers with lower-cost virtual replicas of its products to adorn users’ avatars.
However, if you casually browse chat boards engaged in by VR users and creators, the overall attitude is that the VR platform is stalling — it’s not growing, and companies’ demands of it will likely outbid its abilities. The start-build-stall pattern driving the engineering behind VR may entirely be its downfall, and as consumers desire more and more from a platform that can simply not deliver, the novelty may quickly dissipate.
