How Walmart’s new video game miniseries lets consumers buy real-life products

Walmart has launched a video game miniseries in which players can shop for physical products from real brands without having to leave the gaming environment. The effort, which takes place inside gaming platform Spatial, is Walmart’s latest attempt to offer real-world commerce opportunities within virtual settings, following similar activations on Roblox, social app Zepeto and the retail giant’s own virtual world Realm. Walmart Unlimited is a three-part video game, the first of which funnels players to a shopping area where they can purchase items from seven small food retailers such as A Dozen Cousins, which sells beans and rice products, and Partake Cookies. Players can buy and ship the items to their real-world homes without having to leave the game thanks to a software development kit (SDK) designed by Walmart and game engine Unity. The next two installments will roll out in April and May, respectively; the second will see a shift toward beauty and lifestyle-focused brands, such as Luna Magic. NextGen Marketing Summit Join us for a crash course on Gen Z, DTC marketing and the creator economy Register today Unlimited builds on Walmart’s growing strategy around what it calls “adaptive retail,” or streamlining the shopping journey through engaging online platforms. Many consumers, especially Gen Zers, are interested in the technological advantages these experiences have over in-person shopping, such as 24/7 availability and a lack of checkout lines, according to a report on adaptive retail that Walmart published last summer. Also read: 10 favorite AI video platforms for creative agencies Although brands from Chipotle to Ralph Lauren have long used virtual platforms to sell virtual items that have no real-world application, Walmart has led the charge on integrating physical commerce. The retail giant inaugurated this offering on Roblox nearly a year ago with its Discovered world, then a month later opened Realm—a proprietary immersive shopping experience featuring popular creators that is continually updated to fit notable retail occasions such as back-to-school and the holidays. In January, Walmart began selling clothing from its No Boundaries brand on Zepeto, where players socialize with each other in the form of avatars. Unlimited represents Walmart’s most gaming-heavy adaptive retail effort yet, Justin Breton, Walmart’s head of brand marketing innovation, told Ad Age. Players follow a storyline that will span all three installments, in which they will complete tasks and engage with animated characters before being led to the shopping hub. A recurring character in the first installment is modeled after the real founder of A Dozen Cousins, Ibraheem Basir. Since Spatial is for players aged 18-plus, Unlimited is also a play for a slightly older demographic than Walmart’s previous immersive shopping experiences on Roblox and Zepeto, which have age requirements of 13. Walmart is also hoping to bring more retail opportunities to Spatial by opening up access to its SDK to other game developers on the platform. This technology enables the developers on Spatial to integrate Walmart-directed commerce into their experiences.

How Walmart’s new video game miniseries lets consumers buy real-life products

Featured Stories