The virtual future of retail

Lacoste’s virtual stores feature a special token-gated room for members of the brand’s Web3 community.

In July this year, customers wanting to visit L’Occitane en Provence Middle East’s new store first had to make their way into an airy gazebo in the middle of an idyllic countryside.

From there, they could opt to take a breezy bicycle ride through Provence’s vast rolling lavender fields, have a picnic amongst the almond orchards in the south of France, float up in a hot air balloon that lands on the sun-drenched island of Corsica where Immortelle flowers grow, or hop on a flight to the shea butter producing parklands of Burkina Faso.

With each excursion, visitors could learn more about the brand’s best-selling product ranges and their hero ingredients, picking up purchases as they explored the premises. They could also take part in an ingredient scavenger hunt, or get to know local producers in the region.

The best part of this shopping trip? Customers didn’t have to take a single step out of their own homes. The entirely virtual retail experience offered customers an immersive world at a finger’s tap, complete with atmospheric music, inviting graphics and interactive opportunities to showcase the brand’s heritage and craft.

The French beauty brand’s virtual outpost, powered by virtual retail experience platform Emperia, is just one example of how, with the use of technology, the concept of a store need not be confined to enclosed walls, or even a single geographical location.

Also in partnership with Emperia, Burberry and Harrods in 2021 launched an ethereal, Greek-mythology inspired virtual retail store situated high above the clouds. Skincare brand Tatcha on the other hand transported customers to a Japanese Hinoki Forest early this year to learn about the art of forest bathing from zen monk and global brand well-being ambassador, Toryo Ito.

For Emperia, a virtual reality platform that has worked with other global brands like Dior, Tommy Hilfiger, Lacoste and Dom Pérignon, the future of e-commerce lies in virtual worlds. With the ability to expand reach to new shoppers, deepen brand loyalty and bring a completely novel retail experience, these digital spaces offer the best of both online and in-store shopping, and then some.

“The platform marries the reach and accessibility of e-commerce with the impact of a physical customer-service shopping experience, while leveraging the unique traits of the virtual space,” explains Olga Dogadkina, co-founder and CEO of Emperia. “This gives companies access to technology and infrastructure, which allow them to build and manage powerful virtual experiences.”

Bridging two worlds

Founded in 2019 by Dogadkina and Simonas Holcmann, Emperia was dreamt up after Dogadkina was inspired during her time working in the luxury retail sector. While recognising that e-commerce was retail’s next frontier, she also observed that 2D, images-and-text grid websites “lacked the customer journey, storytelling and ability to provide the customer experience and product discovery of physical stores”.

To bridge that gap between the transactional nature of online retail and the personalised experience of walking into a store, Dogadkina and Holcmann launched Emperia.

For brands, the platform not only enables the creation of one-of-a-kind immersive virtual experiences that drive customer engagement and real-time data reporting on user demographics and preferences, it also empowers them with tools to build and customise their digital space in a visual narrative that brings their brand’s distinct story to life.

“Emperia’s in-house SaaS (software as a service) platform is the first of its kind and integrates into any existing e-commerce and stock management platform,” shares Dogadkina. “This provides retailers with full creative control over the metaverse space they create and how their products are showcased within them.”

“Our data suite then tracks demographics, store activity and purchases, allowing retailers to analyse and optimise their virtual store performance. Utilising historical data, Emperia continues to improve space layouts and user experience, optimising these towards better experience flow and improved KPIs.”

Indeed, brands who have taken the plunge into immersive virtual retail are already reaping notable dividends. Since its establishment, the business reports that the platform has fuelled increased conversion rates for its brand partners by an average of 73% versus regular e-commerce websites, and an average ROI of 750%.

Reimagining retail

It goes without saying that the pandemic period and its accompanying lockdowns drastically altered the luxury retail industry on a global scale. The challenges of such an unprecedented time for businesses meant many looked to innovative solutions such as virtually accessed shops.

“The pandemic definitely accelerated awareness amongst retailers of what immersive, tech-powered, e-commerce experiences could do and the role they could play in their sales strategy,” says Dogadkina. The CEO adds that Emperia saw a spike in demand amongst luxury players during the early Covid-era, and that the popularity of immersive virtual experiences has now diffused to more accessible high street retailers.

Since then, the way businesses approach the concept of a virtual store has also shifted, from largely being viewed as a tech-driven novelty to a viable, effective avenue of commerce. “What we’ve seen during 2023 is a maturing demand for virtual worlds following the earlier buzz, partially contributed to by the entrance of major technology players such as Meta,” she notes.

“The earlier marketing hype, which featured campaign-dependent, short-lived virtual spaces, has now evolved into a permanent, long-term e-commerce solution that is treated as a flagship virtual store.”

As a result, retailers are becoming more experienced and savvy with creating and maintaining their virtual spaces, with some adding specialised roles in the organisation to develop this specific arm of e-commerce.

“They have to address ongoing market trends, seasonal changes and so on, which means that those spaces are no longer static but rather an evolving virtual space which communicates with the brand’s physical store presence, yet elevates it using the digital technology’s unique traits such as the lack of physical boundaries,” she adds.

Unlimited possibilities

What makes a successful virtual store? According to Dogadkina, it comes down to a few key factors: “Easy user experience, rational user interface that connects the physical world to the virtual, elements of gamification, loyalty rewards, dynamic interaction and regular updating.”

For retail brands, virtual spaces open up worlds of opportunity for creativity in engaging with customers through interactive experiences, reward-based incentives and community building.

Lacoste, for example, worked with Emperia to create its first-ever online flagship store which featured an exclusive token-gated room for VIP customers in the brand’s Web3 community, UNDW3. There, members had access to community-created digital items and chances to win prizes through interaction. “This approach has deepened both brand loyalty as well as its positioning as a technology trailblazer,” Dogadkina comments.

Another innovative foray into the virtual sphere was Tommy Hilfiger’s multi-verse virtual experience, that brought its customers a cross-platform shopping experience connecting gaming platforms like Roblox, The Sandbox, Spatial and Decentraland. Notably, Tommy Hilfiger introduced its exclusive Varsity Jacket presented in different aesthetic forms across the various games.

“This strategic move not only bolstered ROI but also nurtured brand loyalty and solidified the brand’s reputation, helping customers feel exclusive and appreciated,” she added.

As technology continues to advance at an ever-increasing pace, we can only expect more impressive and sophisticated innovations on the virtual retail front.

For Emperia, the focus in the upcoming year will be on enhancing its core technology and store development platform, and bringing a more extensive data offering. The upcoming launch of the mixed-reality headset Apple Vision Pro in 2024, Dogadkina points out, will have a radical impact on immersive retail.

“With Apple Vision Pro’s imminent release, the possibilities presented by virtual experiences will further expand, offering a new world of retail which is interconnected with consumers’ everyday lives, from work, to play, to travel and more, turning shopping into an integral part of their experience, rather than a standalone event.”

This article first appeared in Star Biz7 weekly edition.