Virtual Reality

Over the past couple decades, e-commerce has been crowned the biggest development in retailing and is considered the latest transformative milestone. What most retailers don’t know is there are two more enhancements on the rise: augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). These two are expected to take over the retail chain and enhance the…

After decades of preparing for virtual and augmented reality to become mainstream, miniaturized wearable displays and more powerful microchips have combined with sophisticated software to give birth to the metaverse — a persistent digital space linked to the real world, connecting multiple virtual experiences developed by separate creators. And as is often the case, the retail…

Despite the first mention of the metaverse being found in Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" (1992), it wasn’t until 2020 that the term became an omnipresent buzzword in retail, technology and finance. And it wasn’t until October 2021, when Facebook officially announced it was changing its name to Meta, that it became a household trending term.…

Customer experience (CX) is as important as ever, but meeting customers where they are has become significantly more complex. As technology adoption has exploded, consumers get and engage with content from many sources, including the metaverse. Though it has existed in certain circles for years, the public really became aware of the metaverse when Facebook…

Imagine a customer walking into a clothing store. She browses the racks, selects a few items, and asks the sales associate for a dressing room. She walks to the dressing room and tries on the clothes. Then she heads to the counter, pays for some of the items, and leaves. We take for granted —…

Recent research by HubSpot revealed that 39 percent of media planners who use NFTs say they have the best return on investment of any channel in their media mix. Yet, for many marketers, NFTs are still an undiscovered territory, with 16 percent surveyed saying they plan to use NFTs for the first time this year.…

Walmart is diving into the metaverse with two immersive experiences on the Web3 platform Roblox, the retail giant announced Monday. In Walmart Land and Walmart's Universe of Play, Roblox users can shop in a virtual store of merchandise, go on a Ferris wheel, and unlock tokens and badges by playing various games and competitions. The…

In episode 368 of Total Retail Talks, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Brendan Lokes, brand media manager at Carhartt, a manufacturer of premium clothing and workwear known for exceptional durability, comfort, quality and fit. Lokes discusses why Carhartt has formed a partnership with Snapchat and Bitmoji (0:48), how the brand listened to customer demand for Carhartt…

Walmart has rolled out a virtual try-on tool that helps shoppers see how a shirt or another piece of clothing would look on their own bodies. It's the latest feature the company has added to its website, and it comes following the acquisition of Zeekit, a virtual fitting room startup. Walmart launched its first iteration of the tool…

With an estimated market value of more than $1 trillion in yearly revenue, the metaverse is quickly emerging as a significant opportunity for brands to engage customers and create a community of loyal advocates. While it provides a wealth of marketing opportunities, the metaverse — a set of interconnected virtual reality (VR) worlds where people…