What will and will not be the “metaverse”
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 5:03 am
Forget about the little store or the avatar outfit. It's more than that!
It's unlikely that you haven't heard something about the term in recent months. Whether it's the announcement made by Mark Zuckerberg, announcing Facebook as Meta and its proposed metaverse, or the number of brands that have started to invest in different platforms, such as Nike, H&M and Disney, just to name a few, it seems that this will be one of the big topics to be discussed this year.
Now, if some things about this new thing, such as virtual environments, avatars, among others, sound familiar to you, you're not wrong. In fact, for many years, we have been living through virtual reality games and platforms, the possibility of a virtual representation of a person, with the right to customize clothes, accessories, houses, cars, among other items, be it similar to what you have, or similar to what you one day want to be or have.
There are several examples that can be cited, ranging from the universes of “open world” games to console and computer games, and even attempts in the past (almost 20 years ago!), in the always belize whatsapp data remembered Second Life, where the proposal was exactly that, that of an “other life”, which was not the real one.
Now, what changes between what we have experienced so far and the so-called metaverse?
First, it is much more than a simple representation of yourself in a virtual environment. We are talking about a transformation process similar to what occurred in the world of shopping between physical stores and online stores.
At the beginning of e-commerce, we saw operations completely separate from the physical sales world. From stocks and prices to customer service, management and communication. The market did not know how to unify the information of a customer who purchased through both means. In practice, they were two distinct environments.
With the advancement of technology, and especially the advancement of tools that allow us to better understand the different journeys of a single consumer, recognizing them regardless of the channel they are buying from, we began to seek to apply the concept of omnichannel in business, where the entire business operates synergistically across its channels. The terms omnichannel (or omnichannel, if you prefer) and figital (or phygital), if not in development, are on the roadmap of any brand that intends to grow in the market in the coming years. One of the levers for a brand's exponential growth is being digitalized in a way that is appropriate to the demands of its market and its consumers. The more digitalized, the more available.
Thus, just as e-commerce existed before, separate from physical store operations, today we have a new channel that is beginning to take shape, focused mainly on virtual reality.
The challenge, from this point on, is not just opening a store or launching a fashion collection that can be used by avatars in a specific game or platform. That is the simple part of the process. Even these NFTs are just the beginning of this whole conversation.
The main objective for those who start to look at this new “universe” (excuse the pun) of possibilities, is more than just creating, it is unifying this new channel with all the channels present in the brand.
Some possibilities:
Can a consumer in a virtual reality world, while buying an item of clothing for their avatar in a virtual environment, receive the same item physically at their home?
And what about the opposite? Could the same wardrobe items that I have at home today be used in a virtual environment? As a consumer, would I be able to shop in both environments in the same experience, or would they be different shopping experiences?
How to transform all experiences into experiences that are as close as possible, truly creating a brand experience?
Now, let's go further.
We talk about the consumption side, but there is also another side.
If you have a store in a virtual environment, you can have a virtual assistant, right?
This attendant could be the result of programming or artificial intelligence, or it could actually be another person, with a position in a digital environment, working in that environment and being paid for their services and sales, as in the real world.
The world we live in has increasingly shown the need for some form of humanized service or some real contact on the other side of the conversation. People are eager for a good experience, and service is an essential part of all of this.
Thus, there are a series of positions, many not yet imagined, that can be created to be operated by people in the physical world who operate completely in these new realities, and may even receive increasingly digital currencies.
It's unlikely that you haven't heard something about the term in recent months. Whether it's the announcement made by Mark Zuckerberg, announcing Facebook as Meta and its proposed metaverse, or the number of brands that have started to invest in different platforms, such as Nike, H&M and Disney, just to name a few, it seems that this will be one of the big topics to be discussed this year.
Now, if some things about this new thing, such as virtual environments, avatars, among others, sound familiar to you, you're not wrong. In fact, for many years, we have been living through virtual reality games and platforms, the possibility of a virtual representation of a person, with the right to customize clothes, accessories, houses, cars, among other items, be it similar to what you have, or similar to what you one day want to be or have.
There are several examples that can be cited, ranging from the universes of “open world” games to console and computer games, and even attempts in the past (almost 20 years ago!), in the always belize whatsapp data remembered Second Life, where the proposal was exactly that, that of an “other life”, which was not the real one.
Now, what changes between what we have experienced so far and the so-called metaverse?
First, it is much more than a simple representation of yourself in a virtual environment. We are talking about a transformation process similar to what occurred in the world of shopping between physical stores and online stores.
At the beginning of e-commerce, we saw operations completely separate from the physical sales world. From stocks and prices to customer service, management and communication. The market did not know how to unify the information of a customer who purchased through both means. In practice, they were two distinct environments.
With the advancement of technology, and especially the advancement of tools that allow us to better understand the different journeys of a single consumer, recognizing them regardless of the channel they are buying from, we began to seek to apply the concept of omnichannel in business, where the entire business operates synergistically across its channels. The terms omnichannel (or omnichannel, if you prefer) and figital (or phygital), if not in development, are on the roadmap of any brand that intends to grow in the market in the coming years. One of the levers for a brand's exponential growth is being digitalized in a way that is appropriate to the demands of its market and its consumers. The more digitalized, the more available.
Thus, just as e-commerce existed before, separate from physical store operations, today we have a new channel that is beginning to take shape, focused mainly on virtual reality.
The challenge, from this point on, is not just opening a store or launching a fashion collection that can be used by avatars in a specific game or platform. That is the simple part of the process. Even these NFTs are just the beginning of this whole conversation.
The main objective for those who start to look at this new “universe” (excuse the pun) of possibilities, is more than just creating, it is unifying this new channel with all the channels present in the brand.
Some possibilities:
Can a consumer in a virtual reality world, while buying an item of clothing for their avatar in a virtual environment, receive the same item physically at their home?
And what about the opposite? Could the same wardrobe items that I have at home today be used in a virtual environment? As a consumer, would I be able to shop in both environments in the same experience, or would they be different shopping experiences?
How to transform all experiences into experiences that are as close as possible, truly creating a brand experience?
Now, let's go further.
We talk about the consumption side, but there is also another side.
If you have a store in a virtual environment, you can have a virtual assistant, right?
This attendant could be the result of programming or artificial intelligence, or it could actually be another person, with a position in a digital environment, working in that environment and being paid for their services and sales, as in the real world.
The world we live in has increasingly shown the need for some form of humanized service or some real contact on the other side of the conversation. People are eager for a good experience, and service is an essential part of all of this.
Thus, there are a series of positions, many not yet imagined, that can be created to be operated by people in the physical world who operate completely in these new realities, and may even receive increasingly digital currencies.