MGR eCommerce Edge Weekly | December 9, 2020
Top News This Week
Shoppable Video Game Worlds Are a Peek Into the Future
This week both Complex, a culture focused media company, and Balenciaga, the famed fashion brand, launch mini-video games as shoppable experiences for their customers. If you want to see them firsthand, they work on both mobile and desktop: try out Complex’s game or Balenciaga’s.
Complex launched their game as a replacement for their annual ComplexCon. Due to COVID they obviously weren’t able to host it in real life, so instead they created a virtual event with a video-game-like venue in which attendees can customize avatars and wander between event stages, as well as purchase goods at Shopify-backed ecommerce shops and even food trucks complete with actual restaurant deliveries for users in certain major cities.
Balenciaga’s game is quite different, they’ve created a world where the customer walks around in first person, can interact with other characters, find real life items in game available for purchase, and move through levels. They created the game as an early promotion for their Fall 2021 collection.
Both experiences are limited in what they can do because of the need to be able to run on most hardware, not just gaming hardware. Nevertheless these games are peek into the future of eCommerce will be as new digital worlds are created over the next decade. Before you know it you’ll be waiting in a virtual line on Black Friday 2029.
Other Notable Links:
1. How Etsy went from forgotten to explosive growth – NEW YORK TIMES
2. Major mall owners on the verge of bankruptcy – CNBC
3. After blocking Harry’s acquisition, the FTC blocks P&G from buying Billie – TECH CRUNCH
