Every fashion brand wants to stay trendy among its customers. For that, they adopt genuine and innovative techniques. People nowadays admire creativity, which has become significant for the biggest fashion brands to go the extra mile and captivate their attention. Speaking of technology, the metaverse is the talking point in the space of technologies, where a three-dimensional virtual space is created that gives a realistic experience. The combination of the metaverse and the fashion industry looks complex, but its integration has worked wonders.
Fashion labels have found an ingenious way to make shopping convenient for customers. Initially, critics viewed it as an impracticable thing that could not entice the people. But after receiving the positive response, the tables have turned now. This can be seen in the market size, which is predicted to grow by $6.61 billion from 2021 to 2026. To get specifically into the details, let’s have a glimpse over some of the statistics;
- The annual market growth will increase at a CAGR of 36.47%.
- North America is at the top of the market for contributions.
- The United States, China, and Japan are among the key countries that have shown growth in the fashion realm.
- The fundamental companies are Accenture Plc, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Active Theory LLC, Adidas AG, ByteDance Ltd., and Gap Inc.
The fashion industry utilizes the metaverse to amplify its market presence across every platform. Numerous luxurious brands want to open a fashion store in the metaverse. But before entering the metaverse, it’s essential to check for the multiple routes that can help one successfully enter.
Ways To Enter The Metaverse Realm
Collaboration With The Gaming Ventures
The craziness surrounding gaming is not hidden from anyone, so encasing the already existing audience is a strategic move. Also, it is an expanding industry with the potential to grow. Its vast community helps in a massive outreach of people. Capturing this market requires a sensible collaboration between fashion brands and the gaming business. This will help in showcasing their exclusive collections on gaming platforms.
Virtual events like online fashion weeks and digital shows can be launched by making popular celebrities or models wear their collections. Secondly, they can launch the game independently if they don’t need any association.
For instance, Louis Vuitton launched its own fashion game, “Louis the Game,” on the 200th anniversary of its founder. It has around 30 embedded NFTs, each of which is a collectible that can’t be sold.
Similarly, the combined teamwork of Gucci and Roblox created Gucci gardens that give people an immersive and unique experience. Now, this has wholly transformed the fashion demography. Other luxury brands, Balenciaga and Fortnite, developed gaming avatars to promote their fashion brand.
NFTs
NFTs are the best way for the fashion industry to explore the virtual world. They add a certain value to digital creations. Whatever creativity they have, businesses can instil it in their fashion creations and start trading. Everything depends on imagination and ingenuity to help develop designs that are not feasible in the real world.
To keep the balls rolling in the metaverse world, NFTs enable fashion companies to provide virtual versions of apparel, shoes, cosmetics, etc., to various people.
For instance, Dolce and Gabbana have partnered with UNXD, the NFT marketplace, to sell luxury collections to their dedicated customers via NFTs as avatars. The other advantage it served to its users was access to the brand’s upcoming couture shows in the virtual world. This has resulted in unexpected customer engagement in a short period of time, along with everlasting brand loyalty.
Developing crypto wallets
Metaverse and cryptocurrencies have an unsung relationship. Cryptocurrencies trade digital assets in the virtual world, and crypto wallets are essential. Moreover, they will provide transparency and authenticity in the transactions, increasing customers’ trust in fashion products. Also, fake products will be prevented, accelerating the brand’s reputation.
The adoption of cryptocurrencies has become real. Brands like Gucci, Cartier, Prada, etc., have started to accept this advanced payment technique. Undoubtedly, this secure way of performing transactions has garnered billions of customers.
Opening A Fashion Store In The Metaverse
To start a fashion store in a metaverse business in in the virtual world, there are a series of steps that need to be followed;
- Buying land on the metaverse
- Hiring a top metaverse development company
- Smart Contract development
- AR/VR integration
- Constant platform update
Buying Land On The Metaverse
The first step in establishing a virtual business is to purchase land. Land helps organizations host events and run services. It applies to all industries, including education, healthcare, real estate, etc., as in the real world. Land is required to open any store; the same goes for the Metaverse shopping store. There is an alternative way, namely, acquiring a pre-built store. The key difference is that the former helps to give a personalized touch to the new fashion store in metaverse.
Hiring A Top Metaverse Development Company
After buying the land, the next step is to contact the best metaverse development company. This requires proper research and analysis. The company should have experienced developers in the relevant technology who are experts in their work and well-informed about advanced technologies, frameworks, programming languages, etc.
Smart Contract development
This helps invalidate the risks through third-party intermediaries, eventually adding to the cost savings. Every document is encrypted and has a backup without data loss. The operations are convenient, and a decentralized network is formed that does not require human intervention.
AR/VR Integration
Augmented and virtual reality bridge the real and virtual worlds. Fashion brands use innovative technologies that allow users to travel in the virtual domain. These technologies create worthwhile shopping tours and exclusive fashion products. They also create a mesmerizing virtual ecosystem that helps users try out the products as they would in reality. Such enhanced techniques build customer engagement and enhance brand value.
Constant Platform Update
The developed platform is then subject to various upgrades. The software is modified daily, new features are developed, and improved code quality is maintain. So, solutions for unceasing platform improvement are adopted and implement.
Bottom Line!!
Kicking off the retail business in the metaverse is a great idea. This kind of innovation and seamless experience it offers has successfully led to multifold transformations. Brands are gaining immense popularity, and the beautiful integration of elements like AR, VR, AI, ML, NFTs, and blockchain is gaining the upper hand, thereby aligning business operations with the stated goals.
