Metaverse, Metaverse Everywhere And Why Not?

E-commerce companies today are going to great lengths to ensure that customers find online buying easy. A revolution in this field, by far, is the Metaverse. In fact, with 73 per cent of generation-Z consumers willing to pay 10 per cent more for sustainable products alone, brands need to rethink of ways to cater to them, and the Metaverse seems to be it.

- Piyush Gupta

Consumers' shopping habits have undergone a sea change in the last few years. The affordability of the Internet, the proliferation of smartphones, the rise in digital literacy, all topped by the black swan pandemic, accelerated this change. Online shopping became especially popular in the last couple of years even as millennials and Gen-Z were always comfortable shopping online. India's consumer digital economy, which was pegged at US$85-90 billion in CY20, is expected to become a US$800 billion market by 2030 (according to RedSeer) and India's online shopper base is projected to be the second largest globally.

When it comes to clothes and accessories, consumers have almost always preferred the opportunity to touch, feel and try products before making a purchase. With online shopping, the idea that clothes need to be tried on to check the fit before payment was almost thrown out of the window because for a long time, this was an experience that online shopping had not been able to recreate. But, e-commerce companies today are going to great lengths to ensure that customers find online buying easy. A revolution in this field, by far, is the Metaverse.

A Metaverse Future

Consumer engagement and online shopping is shifting these days. Shopping via real-time immersive and interactive content (gaming, social media AR filters) is normal. In keeping with the times, consumers will definitely use more advanced technologies to improve their buying experience and Metaverse will lead the way.

Though the idea of the Metaverse emerged in the gaming industry, the retail - especially fashion retail, has been eager to make the most of the prospects that it has to offer.