HOW IMMERSIVE COMMERCE WILL SAVE RETAIL
Technology concepts like 3D product images and augmented reality (AR) may once have seemed futuristic, but they are more commonplace than ever. As more and more retailers begin to delve into widgets and gadgets to entice uninspired shoppers, the landscape of immersive commerce continues to widen. How will your brand differentiate itself from a sea of bandwagoners?
Let’s Play
Everything you need to understand about the potential value of immersive commerce can be witnessed in living rooms and dens and basements across the world – gamers already know the sort of magic that can be created in the metaverse.
Shopping is a team sport. The same platforms that support battle-ready friends fighting in real-time on some distant planet can be repurposed and given new life, quite literally, in new environments. Imagine the world your brand could sculpt for its clients. Imagine the connections you could create with not just brand-loyalists, but with the new blood, the influencers who are constantly looking for The Next Big Thing.
It already exists.
What’s Good for the Goose
Like innumerable other areas, women and girls are often left out of the gamer profile. Considering they account for nearly 45% of the gaming population, this is a massive missed opportunity. The issue here is not that gender norms dictate that only women enjoy shopping, it’s that the fashion industry is hesitant to move to gaming platforms because they are concerned their existing loyalists will not buy-in. On the contrary – they’re already there.
Gamification is the inevitable “next level” of global commerce, and the CX opportunities it creates will change the way shoppers interact with brands. Leveraging an improved CX reaps incredible rewards for all:
84% of companies that prioritize customer experience report increases in overall revenue
Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than their competitors
An engaged customer is five times more likely to buy again, and four times more likely to recommend you to a friend
Social Studies
Immersive commerce opportunities exist in limitless numbers on social media. Asia has been at the forefront of technology integration, and it shows: China’s “social commerce” market (purchases made via social media) is expected to exceed $360 billion in 2021.
For every minute that passed in the year 2020, users uploaded 500 hours of content to YouTube, downloaded TikTok nearly 3,000 times, and posted more than 347,000 stories on Instagram. How much money is your brand leaving on the table?
