🛒The Walmart Metaverse For Shoppers

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Jo Lambadjieva
June 04, 2024

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The Walmart Metaverse For Shoppers

Walmart is going full metaverse with the launch of Walmart Realm, a new hub for immersive, gamified shopping experiences developed in partnership with real-life influencers.

The virtual destination houses three thematic "worlds" so far - 'So Jelly', 'Y'allternative' and 'Go Chromatic' - each inspired by trending aesthetics popularized on social media. Through Emperia's VR technology, shoppers can explore 360-degree realms with custom soundtracks and high-fidelity visuals while collecting rewards and discovering Walmart products aligned with each world's vibe.

Walmart is targeting gen Z and gen Alpha consumers

The curated product assortments were hand-picked by creators whose personal brands match the aesthetic of each realm, including fashion bloggers Nava Rose and sister influencers Makenzie and Malia. In the grungy 'Y'allternative' shop, for example, users can find a denim jumpsuit, bolo tie and "dark, moody" makeup tutorial.

Walmart plans to continually update Walmart Realm with new holiday and seasonally-themed digital storefronts throughout the year, with more creator collaborations coming in July. The experiential shopping plays are part of the retail giant's increasing investment in immersive commerce experiences.

The company sees the virtual moves as key to courting Gen Z and younger shoppers who spend substantial time in gaming platforms like Roblox, which Walmart is also leveraging for e-commerce pilots bringing real-world shopping into the virtual realm.

While some brands have cooled on metaverse marketing after the 2022 hype cycle, Walmart believes creating "native," gamified digital experiences can drive meaningful engagement and close the gap between inspiration and purchase. Bringing the virtual and real-world closer through immersive tech is central to Walmart's "adaptive retail" strategy for the next generation of shoppers.

The Quick Read:

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🚨OpenAI has recently begun training its next frontier model and we anticipate the resulting systems to bring us to the next level of capabilities on our path to AGI.
Source ~OpenAI
— AshutoshShrivastava (@ai_for_success)
11:16 AM • May 28, 2024