Businesses are seeking new strategies to engage customers and blend physical and online shopping. Retail is no longer just about selling merchandise; it’s also about making shopping fun.
Interactive shopping is becoming a powerful tool for retailers to increase sales and foster brand loyalty, transforming even the most mundane shopping activities into entertainment.
This can be as simple as punch cards, mobile rewards at coffee shops or virtual badges, but retailers increasingly are experimenting with more sophisticated technology.
Augmented Reality
Niantic, the American software development company behind the augmented reality mobile game Pokémon Go, has transformed the retail experience by offering businesses the opportunity to become a Sponsored Location. Players see sponsoring stores on the game map and get rewards for visiting that location.
Starbucks is a longstanding sponsor of Pokémon Go. In 2016, the company announced it would transform thousands of its U.S. stores into “PokéStops” – as well as creating a special-edition Pokémon GO Frappuccino®.
In 2024, Pokémon Go launched a collaboration with luxury fashion brand Fendi, giving players the opportunity to claim and acquire different Pokémon Go cosmetic items, all of which require no purchases.
Other partners include Circle K, Kung Fu Tea, McDonalds (in Canada and India) and Verizon. Pokémon GO is also partnering with Amazon Prime Gaming to bring Prime members exclusive in-game content. In May 2023, Amazon Anywhere began selling items on the augmented reality game Peridot (by the makers of Pokémon Go). Users can buy physical products from Amazon while playing the game and exploring a virtual world with their “Peridots,” or AI-powered creatures.
Holiday Shopping
Retailers are also taking advantage of the metaverse to draw in holiday and seasonal shoppers – whether for Black Friday or summer vacation. In June 2023, J.Crew launched a virtual beach house where customers could shop themed rooms with related merchandising. For example, in the Floral Room, customers could purchase made-in-Spain espadrilles after learning about the 14th-century origin of the shoe’s design. The experience also included pop quizzes and an interactive scavenger hunt game.
In November, J.Crew created a ski-themed, immersive holiday shopping experience, which included a ski game and an AI Card Generator tool that allowed visitors to answer a set of “this or that” questions, which would then generate a holiday greeting card based on their responses.
French beauty brand L’Occitane en Provence also launched an interactive virtual store for the holiday season. Gift-wrapping elements were scattered around the space, allowing shoppers to build their own customized boxes. Visitors could also virtually light up an olive tree and create their own personalized postcard containing their curated product wishlist.
Online Game Platforms
Two of the most popular online game platforms, Roblox and Fortnite, are increasingly attracting retail partners. Brands are partnering with Roblox to create virtual stores where consumers can shop for both physical and digital products (e-commerce integration is powered by outside platforms like Obsess, since physical products are not yet sold in Roblox stores).
Between Q1 and Q3 2023, 1.6 billion digital fashion items and accessories were sold on Roblox. Brands that have partnered with Roblox include Nike, Crocs, Walmart, Tommy Hilfiger and more.
Last summer, Walmart introduced Supercampus, a back-to-school-themed game, on Roblox. And this March, Roblox hired three new executives to enhance its brand partnerships, including former Disney interactive experiences VP John Love. Many of these new partnerships will likely be retailers.
In December, LEGO Fortnite went live. To advertise the launch, four giant LEGO Supply Llamas (a Fortnite character) were showcased in New York, London, Tokyo and Sydney – each made up of 234,623 LEGO bricks, and requiring more than 850 hours to build. The companies are working to build digital twins for thousands of physical LEGO elements across the Fortnite Ecosystem, encouraging both physical and digital purchases.
And in February, Epic Games,which powers Fortnite, and Disney announced their partnership on an “all-new games and entertainment universe” that will bring characters from Disney to Fortnite.
The era of interactive retail has just begun. In the coming years, we’ll see more retailers of all sizes, large and small, entering the world of online and VR gaming, and selling both virtual and physical goods through those platforms. Expect retailers to also design increasingly creative gaming experiences of their own, like holiday pop-up experiences or games meant to advertise the launch of new products or collections.