How Brands Can Thrive In The Direct To Avatar Economy

Enter direct-to-avatar commerce, or D2A, an emerging retail model that will unlock new opportunities for brands entering the metaverse, forging deeper connections in digital environments. This means reimagining the world of atoms into a world of bits and pixels.

We’ll also see an emerging creator economy form, as custom content creators (or CCs) take avatar customization into their own hands, creating high-demand, digital clothing and accessories to sell to other players across social platforms.

Designers, brands, and celebrities alike realize that future consumers are online. They have digital identities in games and virtual hangouts. In order to market to future customers, they need to meet them where they are at – in the metaverse (or Fortnite or Roblox).

Starting with small AR/VR indulgences is good for both consumers and brands. Shopify revealed that products with 3D/AR content showed a 94% higher conversion rate than for products without 3D/AR.

Balenciaga, a luxury goods and jewelry company, partnered with Sketchfab to power their Fall 21 Lookbook. The 3D clothing and models are part of Balenciaga’s video game fashion show, „Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow.” The video game is a walkthrough of the 2021 Fall line where people walk past models and clothes floating on the wall.

Brands can learn from these examples or start exploring what their brand’s virtual identity will be in these evolving virtual worlds.

Three things brands can do to start preparing are:

●     Examine creating their own branded video game which could actually lead to sales of virtual goods that, in turn, arrive at a consumer’s home in their physical form.

●     Partner with up-and-coming in-platform game creators in Roblox or similar platforms and create a campaign that can generate results in the platform’s digital currency.

●     Explore creating their own virtual influencer like Ikea and other brands have done.