How grocery, drug and convenience retailers can leverage metaverse tech now

What it means: With adoption of the metaverse on the rise, retailers and brands should consider how these platforms fit into their long-term strategic goals. While these trends tend to begin in luxury and general merchandise sectors, they often trickle down to essential retail sectors as consumers look to recreate their everyday experiences in the metaverse. The metaverse is a differing set of platforms, applications, games and experiences including augmented reality (AI), virtual reality (VR), Web 3.0 and 5G that support a unique set of targeted audiences. Retailers should approach a metaverse strategy by first considering what shoppers value, how the company can differentially provide that value and how the metaverse offers new opportunities for that value transfer to consumers. “Retailers need to create new, immersive experiences and content to reach their targeted audiences and the metaverse can support this need,” Girish Dhaneshwar, Cognizant’s vice president, consulting practice leader – retail, consumer goods, and travel and hospitality, told Retail Leader Pro. “In the race to execute a metaverse strategy, some brands may think they should replicate the in-person customer experience digitally, which might not be the case. In addition to establishing an immersive interaction channel, a metaverse strategy should also focus on exploring opportunities for optimizing business operations using digital twins, selling virtual goods, enabling crypto payments or NFTs for rewards and enabling immersive training for employees, like safety training or customer service.” By leveraging metaverse platforms, grocery, convenience and drug chains can create immersive, exciting and valuable experiences for their consumers without having to invest in physical spaces. From a consumer perspective, convenience and accessibility are growing shopping trends, and the metaverse helps address these issues since it’s virtual. Additionally, the metaverse allows retailers to expand their base to reach a younger demographic of shoppers, who prefer to shop digitally. “Virtual products or goods are becoming so popular with Gen Z and Gen Alpha and have already made a big economic impact on these audiences in the gaming and entertainment industries,” Dhaneshwar said. “It’s critical for retailers that are currently focused on selling physical goods online to assess the potential of expanding their business to sell virtual products.” Which metaverse platform to choose? Many different and varied metaverse platforms can apply to retail, grocery, drug and discount stores. However, each retailer needs to determine the right platform to reach their intended audiences. “Some of these platforms may be helpful for retailers in rolling out an immersive interaction channel swiftly since they provide digital advertising and two-way communications, allowing retailers to build their audience base and brand while creating a unique environment,” Dhaneshwar explains. As the metaverse platforms are evolving, retailers do not need to focus on one single platform. Instead, retailers should understand what technologies and platforms they need to reach their customers and enhance their buying experiences. “There are many entry points for brands to take advantage of, including gaming platforms, AR technologies and other digital assets, like NFTs,” Dhaneshwar said. “It’s unlikely that a store brand is going to create its own metaverse, as it would have trouble attracting a worthwhile audience. Identifying the demographic retailers want to target and then leveraging the platforms they use is going to be key.” Following or leading? While some reports suggest usage of metaverse platforms is low, Dhaneshwar says this simply isn’t true, but usage rates vary across metaverse platforms. Larger retailers are exploring metaverse technologies, and they continue to develop new platforms to meet the evolving purchasing behaviors of their customers. “The platforms where value is limited for consumers or even employees tend to drop off quickly,” Dhaneshwar explained. “But where platforms leverage things like social interaction and gamification to make compelling and engaging experiences for users, those numbers are rising.” Currently, the adoption of the metaverse for grocery, drug and convenience retailers is still in its early stages. “The metaverse is still in its early stages, but this has not deterred brands from inquiring about it and investing in some of the technologies like AR, VR and 5G to more effectively interact and acquire new customers,” Dhaneshwar explained. “Luxury brands and fashion retailers have been the first out of the gate to take advantage of these new platforms and are creating innovative targeted campaigns and social interactions with their audiences.” While influencer marketing is still an evolving concept in general, the metaverse parallels with social media are impossible to ignore, and influencers have already started appearing on metaverse platforms. “The use of influencers, alongside concepts such as gamification and social interaction, can help to make those interactions less gimmicky and more long-lasting,” Dhaneshwar said. “Metaverse along with its creator economy promises a bigger potential for influencer marketing to drive sales of virtual goods or products in virtual spaces.” Can the metaverse assist with employee retention? The metaverse also is about more than just consumer experiences for retailers. For example, using VR platforms for training has been around for a while and continues to grow at a significant pace, Dhaneshwar says. Accenture built its own metaverse called the Nth floor. “It helps bring our people together to meet, collaborate and learn,” Lori Zumwinkle, Accenture’s senior managing director and North America retail lead, told Retail Leader Pro. “Whether hosting meetings or socializing, the metaverse is a versatile, scalable solution for bringing a geographically distributed workforce together.” In addition, Accenture created digital twins — virtual models designed to reflect a physical space or object — of many of its physical offices, from Bangalore in India to Madrid in Spain and San Francisco in the U.S., to provide familiar environments for its people to meet, collaborate and network. From an operational point of view, the metaverse can help attract and retain employees as well as improve their training. In addition, metaverse technologies can help make retail operations more efficient using digital twins, allowing retailers to, for example, redesign their stores. It’s important to view metaverse platforms as part of the enterprise, Dhaneshwar said. This includes ensuring that training programs incorporate learning management systems and digital twins, which utilize information from across the enterprise and hook into that retail and grocery ecosystem, he explained. Can the metaverse improve consumer loyalty? Whatever comes of the term metaverse, the tools, tech, platforms and concepts that have driven the excitement around it are not going away. As new platforms for consumers arise, and new technologies for improving operations and employee experience gain traction, they can be leveraged today by grocery, drug and convenience retailers to prepare for the future and build forward-thinking and experiential retail. Additionally, the technology is helping retailers to understand their consumers better and enhance the overall shopping experience. “The metaverse can enable retailers to gain more insights about shopper behavior through data and analytics and offer them deeper discounts, loyalty points and coupons as they shop the aisles virtually – in real-time,” Dhaneshwar said. “Consumers might also be able to try out various products online allowing them to see real-world outcomes immediately. Additionally, the metaverse can create conversational marketing, which will allow consumers to have two-way instant conversations with retailers and brands. This creates a better experience and ensures brand loyalty.” What’s next: As retailers think about entering the metaverse, it’s important they look beyond selling goods to consumers and invest in an experience that can’t be duplicated in physical retail stores. Product education, live demonstration and gamification of the in-store experience are ways essential retailers can put their own stamp on virtual experiences for consumers.