Walmart deepens its metaverse presence with new e-commerce experience selling physical goods on Zepeto

The launch is Walmart’s third metaverse e-commerce experience, evidence that the retailer is playing the long game in its approach to virtual worlds. In April 2024, Walmart partnered with Roblox to open the platform first e-commerce experience for physical goods; in May 2024, Walmart opened its own virtual world platform with e-commerce capabilities, Walmart Realm.

Introducing e-commerce

Although Zepeto is smaller than the “big three” of meta-platformers Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft, it is a major player in the virtual world game, boasting 20 million monthly active users, according to figures shared by Zepeto and Walmart.

“The reason why the Zepeto platform is so interesting compared to other UGC [user-generated content] gaming platforms like Roblox and UEFN [Unreal Editor for Fortnite] is that image – including clothing, accessories, makeup and so on – plays a bigger role in the lives of players on the platform,” said Morgan Evans, director of metaverse fashion and beauty at Karta Studios.

Walmart has maintained an official partnership with Zepeto since last year, though company representatives declined to disclose specific terms of the deal, such as how the companies will share revenue from product sales. Since October 24, 2024, Zepeto users have been able to create their own avatars try virtual recreation of clothing from the Walmart No Boundaries brand, with the latter item being the last to drop November. Today’s launch of the physical merchandise e-store also brings another drop of 10 new clothing items.

Since launching in October, Zepeto users have tried on Walmart virtual items more than 3.5 million times, 1.3 million virtual clothing purchases have been made, and 1.87 million pieces of Zepeto content have been created using Borderless Items, according to data shared by Walmart. The company declined to say how many individual people tried on or purchased virtual Walmart items, but the numbers helped push Walmart to implement e-commerce into the experience.

“At this point, the benefit is much stronger than any risk, especially for a company as well-supported as Walmart,” said Jason Chung, director of esports and gaming at New York University. “As far as Zepeto is concerned, they should do it anyway – for a retailer, what’s the point of having any kind of avatar or interactive experience without the ability to buy the platform directly?”

Collection of user data

The ability to collect specific data on user preferences for specific clothing items was one of the reasons why Walmart decided to launch its latest virtual e-commerce experience on Zepeto rather than competing platform metaverse, according to Walmart’s head of brand marketing innovation, Justin Breton. By partnering with Zepeto, Walmart is able to determine which garments are most frequently tried on, as well as which items are most frequently featured in Zepeto’s user-generated content. Through the October and November drops, for example, Walmart learned that virtual items with graphic designs or phrases performed better than traditional items like unbranded sweaters or jeans.

“What’s great about Zepet is that it actually gives us data and insights about this new generation of consumers that are really actionable on platforms like Roblox and Minecraft and Fortnite because this new generation is using their virtual persona to make it real. world shopping,” Breton said.

Zepeto Walmart’s e-commerce integration is currently live and will remain open indefinitely, with a Walmart representative telling Digiday that the company will “assess customer feedback and try to learn as much as possible before making any future decisions” about its the presence of Zepeto. The integration comes in the form of a virtual Walmart store accessible directly within the Zepeto app. Users viewing a virtual item in Zepeto can click a button to purchase the real version through Walmart’s in-app store, with the fulfillment process identical to any other online Walmart order.

“What this allows is for the customer or the user to feel secure because no new payment information is actually being recorded,” Breton said. “Everything is downloaded directly from your Walmart account.”

Walmart’s decision to focus on virtual clothing for its latest foray into the metaverse shows how the company has learned from its previous experiments in the space. In 2022 online observers society jester for the Walmartland Roblox experience, which some users felt lacked meaningful content. And Roblox’s e-commerce launch last year, while innovative, focused on items like water bottles and bags rather than virtual clothing. In contrast, Walmart’s Zepeto experience uses virtual identity experimentation that brings users to the platform and provides ample opportunities for users to change their virtual appearance with Boundless items.

“On Zepeto, especially when it comes to apparel and fashion, there’s a much higher propensity to spend on digital goods,” said Barney Lynch, account director for data firm GEEIQ, which worked with Walmart and Zepeto to provide information on both today’s launches and past metaverse activations companies. “And we’re hoping to really like to learn if that’s the case for physical goods as well.”