For any business to scale, it's imperative to be consumer-centric and understand its key drivers of consumption. In the age of today's advanced experience, the shift towards the omnichannel platform, the growth of consumer personalization with the brand becomes essential. The immersive virtual commerce experiences through phygital stores significantly increase customer engagement. With information flooding through various networks, businesses must develop a strong social connection with their customers.   

Blended physical and digital platforms will deliver a seamless and ubiquitous buying journey. It will be one connected ecosystem elevating the consumers' end-to-end experience. 

Modern commerce is driven in the virtual world with manifestation in the physical world. As shopping behavior gets pushed by omnichannel and phygital environments, consumer experiences will be more conversational and brand associated. It will make co-creation a standard practice, and the path to purchase will have interactive experiences. The Metaverse is making shopping experiences more immersive and personalized than ever, letting consumers shop and socialize in their virtual environment.

Metaverse provides real-time consumer behavior, greater reach, and brand awareness for businesses. The immersive virtual showrooms, community engagement, personalized avatars, and product interaction allows brands to leverage the sales funnel.

How Metaverse Brings the Difference in Customer Engagement

The term Metaverse sounds like something straight from a sci-fi movie. The concept was first coined in 1992 by the author Neal Stephenson in his book titled ‘Snow Crash’. Now 30 years later, it has become a reality and is already redefining the relationship between brands and consumers.

The Metaverse is changing how we use the internet. From flat screens and two-dimensional experiences on our computers and smartphones, we are moving towards a whole new immersive way of virtual commerce.

Metaverse is still evolving, and there are different ways to experience the pieces of the immersive journey. Some of them are accessible with the help of augmented reality (AR) applications and virtual reality devices. AR allows us to blend the real and virtual worlds, and VR lets us dive into the Metaverse experiences. Some advanced platforms feature sensors that can translate real-world gestures to your Metaverse avatar.

Metaverse: A Paradigm Shift

Big Tech companies like Facebook (Meta), Apple, Google, and Microsoft have initiated their metaverse journey. The pandemic, new technologies, and customer expectations have come together to spark the dawn of the Metaverse, and customer and employee demand will continue to accelerate its development. Industry experts say this will be another paradigm, not just a fad.

According to Gartner, by 2026, 25 percent of people will spend at least one hour daily engaging in work, shopping, education, socializing, and events and activities in the Metaverse. Therefore, it wouldn't be incorrect to say that the future of businesses is the Metaverse. The new-age technology is creating various opportunities for all industries. It is explicitly playing a vital role in reshaping customer experiences. 

The Relevance of the Metaverse for Better Customer Engagement

The Metaverse is a multidimensional layer pushing companies to reimagine the brand and consumer relationship. Apart from reshaping how we work, play, socialize, and shop, the Metaverse is also helping companies deliver exceptional customer experiences. Marketers are using this technology to create immersive experiences and drive customer engagement. The marketers now view Metaverse as an opportunity to reach their customer base innovatively. 

Visualization is the Key - Metaverse or virtual experiences are vital to customer engagement because visualization is the key to human sensory perception. Around 60 percent of human sensory experience is through 'what they see.' The rise in technology awareness among customers brings an opportunity to introduce virtual world experiences to the customers.

D2A (Direct-to-Avatar) is another emerging model in which brands invest in digital-only assets designed to be used exclusively by digital avatars in the Metaverse. Here, products are sold directly to avatars or digital identities in the virtual worlds. Some digital assets can be sold as NFTs that users can design, trade, and wear via avatars in a Metaverse. Users can even create avatars as personalized graphical representations of themselves.  

A Personalized Experience - The Metaverse enables users to present themselves in the virtual spaces in a way they would love to. The avatars are customizable based on various parameters such as age, gender, interests, physical attributes, etc. From a brand perspective, unique designs and immersive experiences help develop a customer-centric approach and enhance customer knowledge. 

Brand and Customer Opportunities in the Metaverse

A Metaverse is a differentiation tool that helps suggest the most suitable product and thus, brings higher RoI. It maintains an approach of transparency in commerce by allowing brands to learn more about their customers' buying behavior. It also enables socializing via multiplayer functionality. Metaverse experiences also help in community building through integrated NFTs and associated platforms. 

A personalized shopping experience lets brands connect and engage with their customers globally. Gamification of a buying journey further helps build a reliable customer/fan base. An immersive game, puzzle, or maze can engage the audience significantly. It also helps establish the brand identity and initiative with new product launches and promotions via customized catalogs and banners (video/static).

The Use Cases

Home Decor - The Metaverse experiences developed by various brands across industries bring a list of use cases to understand the trends. For instance, a home decor brand lets consumers design their space by customizing (virtually) wall paint and placing different types of furniture in a virtual version of a building. Doing so allows customers to get the best satisfaction with the color and fit in the space.

Auto Industry - With immersive experiences, auto brands can allow their customers to experience their product offerings virtually. The users can also examine minute manufacturing details and features, customize colors, visualize the vehicle's interiors, and even go on virtual test drives.

Fashion, Cosmetics, & Retail - Furthermore, fashion, cosmetics, and retail brands can provide consumers with a virtual try-before-buy model using integrated face analysis and product recommendations.

Summing Up!

Industry experts estimate that brands are keen to adopt and build metaverse experiences. They recognize the power of immersive experiences backed by Metaverse and how it can help garner customer attention and engagement.

However, creating such immersive experiences won't be an overnight event. It will be a gradual process, and these experiences will develop as the ecosystem matures.

Businesses, including the big tech companies and us, are paving the way for more virtual worlds with individual economies. The markets are being developed virtually, from real estate to complete shopping experiences- all of it is becoming a reality. And an interconnected world of multiple Metaverse is not as far as we anticipated.

When it comes to strengthening customer engagement with the Metaverse, entering a virtual world with endless possibilities would be the most rewarding for both brands and consumers. Instead of writing a lengthy email, your customer support could use digital avatars to demonstrate a troubleshooting activity. Your customers could grab your products for a digital test run, try different options, or chat with other users or your support assistant. And the opportunities are endless. In our attempt to seamlessly combine technologies with the Metaverse, we must remember that the sky's the limit.