Amazon has launched a 3-D virtual holiday showroom offering more than 100 products from brands including Beats, Kate Spade and Coach. It’s the latest example of how retailers are using virtual technology to entice shoppers.
The Amazon Virtual Holiday Shop is a qualified take on the metaverse, with virtual representations of real items, but doesn’t include social aspects such as avatars or identity customization. This simplified immersion platform is reminiscent of Walmart’s virtual shopping hub, Realm, which the retailer launched in June. Realm will get an update to align with the holiday shopping season, too, Walmart said in previous announcements about its store.
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Both Amazon and Walmart’s destinations are easily navigable—users move as they do through Google Maps’ Street View— and require no headsets or registration processes, only a web link that can be accessed on mobile and desktop devices. These storefronts, coming from the two biggest retailers, could prove to be less demanding ways for brands to appear in virtual shopping environments, at least compared to creating a bespoke Roblox world or designing an experience for Apple’s Vision Pro.