Metaverse life cycle and the product roadmap of Metaverse commerce
The emergence of Metaverses is opening up new opportunities for online shopping experiences. With a growing number of articles exploring this phenomenon, I would like to share my observations on what online shopping might look like in the Metaverse across different stages of the product life cycle, from introducaction stage, growth stage to the mature stage.
The Introduction Stage
Online shopping moves from a 2-D interaction into a fully immersive virtual experience. Nowadays there are several fashion brands provide online try-on functions, some of them using Snapchat’s apparel try-on tool [1]. People see the digital products in Metaverse (NFTs) as an investment and also permission or an identify to purchase exclusively physical products. Game industry will be a good entry point because the users already have purchase behaviour. The connection between Metaverse and the real world would be essential for users at this time, e.g. list nearby pickup locations to collect the items they purchased or deliver physical products to their places directly.
Product strategy in the introduction stage
Art, Fashion and Game industries enter this stage first and each brand builds its own immersive store; the brands need to communicate with their audience the value of digital products and build strong connection between digital and physical products. There are several companies who assist brands to build their own Metaverse stores on their current website, providing 3D experience. The current solution providers are: Obesess, ByondXR, Emperia, and Retail VR. Or, brands can also launch their Metaverse store on other popular Metaverses such as Roblox, Oculus, Zepeto or Fortnite Creative.
Providing NFT minting services and launching on NFT marketplaces can also be an effective strategy to drive growth and revenue. It’s important to seamlessly integrate the Metaverse store with the existing checkout flow and provide a physical product delivery solution to ensure a smooth customer experience.
The Growth Stage
Users start developing their avatar in Metaverses and willing to purchase digital products as their properties. The digital products are like their status symbols. Users will spend more time socializing here. To provide cross metaverse asset interoperability is important in this stage.
Product Strategy in the growth stage
In the growth stage of a product, a successful strategy should prioritize creating an immersive primary marketplace that delivers a consistent and seamless shopping experience across all channels. This can be achieved through omnichannel capabilities, product personalization/customization, and cross-metaverse compatibility, enabling users to transfer digital goods between different virtual environments. Additionally, expanding into multiple Metaverses and providing creators with a platform to manage their stores can help drive growth and expand the product’s reach.
The Mature Stage
In this stage, users are able to switch between real world and Metaverse smoothly, to interact with friends and work with colleagues. More entertainment and customized products will come up, secondary markets will become popular. Metaverse and the universe are both their main social/work places.
Product Strategy in the mature stage
To succeed in the mature stage, a product strategy must prioritize business relationship management in Metaverses and leverage community flavor to build engagement with customers. Providing a secondary marketplace, shifting from PGC to UGC, and incorporating B2B marketplaces are also important strategies to drive growth and provide additional revenue streams. Additionally, stores need a CRM system and virtual assistant solutions to manage customer relationships effectively, and community shopping features such as shopping with friends can enhance the shopping experience.
