Walmart’s 3D e-commerce platform, Realm, is a new bet in the Metaverse

The world’s largest retailer’s new e-commerce platform launched Wednesday lets you buy digital duplicates of select products sold in real Walmart stores through virtual bazaars designed to look like whimsical, make-believe worlds. There’s “So Jelly” – an underwater universe, “Y’allternative” – ​​the frontier where the Old West meets the Gothic aesthetic, and “Go Chromatic” – a metallic environment seemingly set in the middle of outer space.

Currently, Walmart land is a website that you can access on your desktop or mobile phone. To shop, users click on various items in virtual stores, click the “Add to Cart” button, and then click the checkout link to Walmart.com.

Walmart, known for its massive fleet of more than 4,000 brick-and-mortar stores where the average customer is a white baby boomer woman, has in recent years sought to capture shoppers’ attention — and make money — through metaworld, a universal tool for the future of the Internet, in where gaming, social media and e-commerce collide.

The launch of Walmart Realm is the latest sign that the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer is increasing its investments in virtual worlds, even as other companies have abandoned their metaverse strategies in favor of hipper trends like artificial intelligence. (That said, Walmart isn’t ignoring AI either.)

“We’re really in the testing and learning phase of how to shape the future state of immersive commerce because we believe this is the future of commerce,” said Justin Breton, Walmart’s director of brand experience and strategic partnerships. “It won’t replace the website or our app, but it will be free.”

This isn’t Walmart’s first foray into the metaverse. In 2022, as the concept of the metaworld took corporate America by storm, Walmart was one of many companies creating spaces in virtual worlds like Fortnite and Roblox to connect with younger customers. For example, the retailer announced two immersive experiences on Roblox called Walmart Land and Walmart Universe, where users can purchase goods with their virtual avatars. Two years later, it looks like Walmart isn’t slowing down in investing in the metaverse.

Just a few weeks ago, Walmart announced plans to sell physical goods directly to shoppers on the virtual platform Roblox. Unlike Walmart Discovered, the digital retailer experience on Roblox, Walmart Realm exists as its own independent, web-accessible platform built on Emperia, a virtual shopping company that has created digital stores for retailers and brands including L’occitane, Bloomingdale’s and Boss.

Despite all the hype surrounding the Metaverse, few companies have found a way to make money from virtual worlds. For Melissa Minkow, director of retail strategy at consulting firm CI&T, Walmart Realm represents a more fully realized e-commerce version of digital counterparts introduced over the past few years.

“It uses conceptual values ​​and strategic components of the metaworld, but ultimately the result is e-commerce,” Minkow said. “What Walmart Realm shows is that they probably weren’t driving expected sales through Roblox, so they made the concept more fun and more like traditional e-commerce.”

Virtual stores have surged in popularity in the wake of the pandemic as retailers experimented with ways to engage consumers beyond the traditional in-store shopping experience. But unlike the digital projects of its predecessors, such as the J.Crew virtual beach house store or the Elizabeth Arden digital store modeled after a historic Fifth Avenue showroom, Walmart’s efforts are less grounded in a real-world setting.

Walmart also enlisted a team of influencers – Mai Pham, Nava Rose, Makenzie and Malia Fowler – to curate the platform’s assortment of approximately one hundred beauty, fashion and home items inspired by social trends.

Gen Z is a clear target. Most of the items listed are under $50, with the cheapest item for sale being a pair of faux pearl earrings for $3.88. But the platform also does not count larger expenses. For example, a metallic faux leather jacket costs $106. The most expensive item for sale at Walmart Realm is a white boucle sofa with a price tag of $800.

The platform is also making changes to video games for online shopping, another indication that Gen Z was at the forefront when the retailer designed Walmart Realm. For example, “Go Chromatic” features a Tetris-inspired mini-game where you can win a $100 raffle. What’s more, as people explore the Walmart Realm, they can collect tokens in the shape of Walmart’s iconic yellow star logo to earn rewards, including a 20% coupon. The idea is to encourage users to stay on the platform as they would in a store.

One potential hurdle for Walmart Realm is getting customers to go there first. That’s where Walmart’s team of influencers comes in handy. The retailer hopes to leverage its total social media following – more than 11 million on TikTok alone – to encourage fans to try Walmart Realm and, hopefully, make a purchase.

Walmarat’s Breton said a team of retail influencers will be posting Realm-related content on their social media channels over the next few weeks to encourage shoppers to try the platform for the first time or check out something they may have missed the first time around.

“Maybe Nava will say, ‘Hey, have you played this mini-game yet?’ So you come back, you play the game, maybe you win a prize, and maybe that will make you come back the next day,” Breton said.

As for the future, Breton is optimistic that the e-commerce expansion of Walmart Realm and Walmart on Roblox represents the next phase of the retailer’s online shopping strategy. He hopes Walmart’s immersive e-commerce experience will expand to other platforms such as Fortnite and Minecraft.

As Breton put it: “As more platforms leverage real-world commerce, we would like to have the opportunity to be the partner of their choice to bring it to their communities.”