Is the Metaverse the Future of Retail?

17/08/2026
10:44

reading time : 2 min

Lucie Monnot

Content Marketing Manager

The most prominent brands are moving into the metaverse. Is the current rush toward virtual worlds simply a passing trend, a new speculative bubble or the beginning of a profound transformation of retail and consumer behavior?

At the end of October 2021, Mark Zuckerberg brought the term “metaverse” into the spotlight when he announced that the Facebook group was changing its name to Meta.

Until then, the term had mainly been familiar to gamers, technology enthusiasts and science-fiction fans.

A contraction of meta and universe, the word metaverse was coined by author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel Snow Crash to describe an immersive and interactive virtual world.

Platforms such as Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox and The Sandbox are only early versions of this concept.

Zuckerberg’s ambition is to take the concept much further by creating a complete virtual world in which everyone could use an avatar and virtual reality headset to do “everything, and much more than they can do in real life.”

That is the promise.

Many people are betting on Meta’s ability to accelerate the technological developments and integration required to make this vision a reality, thanks to massive investments, including the $100 billion announced by the company, and the enormous potential user base represented by Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.

A gigantic bet

Beyond Meta’s ambitions, a “metaverse ecosystem” already exists. It is made up of a wide range of players, including:

Infrastructure creators, such as gaming platforms and marketplaces.
Immersive hardware providers, including virtual reality headsets and haptic devices.
Decentralized payment systems based on cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
Content publishers.
Creators and sellers of virtual objects in the form of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, which are digital certificates confirming the ownership and authenticity of a virtual asset.

This ecosystem is attracting investors because the emerging metaverse market has all the characteristics of a new gold rush.

According to consulting firm Grand View Research, or GVR, the market was valued at $38.8 billion in 2021 and could reach $678 billion by 2030. This would represent an annual growth rate of nearly 40% between 2020 and 2030.

Citigroup estimates that, provided massive investments are made in technological infrastructure, including computing power, 5G and AI, the “metaverse economy” could be worth between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030 and have five billion users.

These astronomical projections are based on the belief that the metaverse will succeed the web as we know it.

Given that the US gross domestic product was $22.9 trillion in 2021, it is difficult to see how something that does not yet exist could reach such levels in less than ten years.

Regardless, metaverse advocates are numerous. The prospect of rapid wealth creation is attracting both large and small investors, as well as many speculators.

What exists today

In practice, gaming platforms currently generate the most revenue from the metaverse concept, driven by two complementary trends.

Monetizing virtual objects and privileges

The first trend is the monetization of virtual objects and privileges within the game itself.

Players will increasingly be able to buy and sell objects that have no physical existence but hold value within their communities because of their rarity or the prestige they confer on their owners.

For example, your determination as a player may have enabled you to win a sword that is particularly difficult to obtain.

This sword gives your avatar powers that allow you to progress more quickly in the game. It may also have potential market value. You can sell it to the highest bidder using the cryptocurrency accepted on the platform or, if it is an NFT, on a wider marketplace.

Opening platforms to third-party brands and companies

The second trend is the opening of metaverse platforms to brands and third-party companies.

The phenomenon is not new. In 2007, being present on Second Life, establishing a virtual headquarters or recruiting employees there was already considered the ultimate ambition for companies.

By establishing a presence in one or more metaverses today, brands and retailers are guaranteed media attention.

Beyond the marketing and publicity impact associated with the relative novelty of this approach, they are also betting on the growth of the virtual goods, exclusive collections and NFT markets.

This is how Gucci’s initiatives should be understood. Gucci was one of the first luxury brands to offer virtual wearables, meaning exclusive virtual accessories designed to be worn not by real people but by their avatars.

Another widely publicized achievement took place in May 2021 on the Roblox platform, where Gucci sold a virtual handbag for more than the physical version of the same bag. The virtual version sold for $4,115, compared with $3,400 for the physical bag.

What is difficult for most people to understand is that the virtual bag has this value only within the Roblox universe.

Because it is not an NFT, it cannot be sold on another platform.

A new consumer environment

In the long video in which Mark Zuckerberg presents his vision of the metaverse and Meta, he focuses mainly on how this future environment will transform social relationships and areas such as entertainment, healthcare, education and work.

Consumption and commerce are not discussed explicitly, but the message is clear. By creating unprecedented opportunities for interaction between brands, customers and products, the metaverse will inevitably become a new environment for commercial consumption.

Consumer brands have understood this, even though the platforms that can currently claim to be metaverses are primarily a new marketing channel for them.

In 2022, brands were expected to launch their new collections and products in these environments, as Coca-Cola did on Fortnite through a limited-time game offering real-world rewards.

But the movement does not stop there.

Brands and retailers are beginning to create “a genuine parallel world” by purchasing plots of land and building properties on gaming platforms.

For example, hotel chain CitizenM recently attracted attention by proposing to build a virtual hotel on The Sandbox, where avatars using the platform could interact and spend time.

The project is funded through the sale of 2,000 NFT creations, giving buyers real-world privileges such as discounts and free drinks.

In a second phase, the proceeds from the NFT sales will be used to finance a CitizenM real estate project in the physical world.

It is understandable that most people would be skeptical about this type of arrangement. However, these investments are genuinely taking place and are contributing to increasingly close links between the virtual and physical worlds.

Paradoxically, the virtual world appears to be designed to open the door to the physical one.

The major unknowns in the metaverse equation

The metaverse must be immersive and three-dimensional. Virtual reality headsets already provide this type of experience, while lighter devices such as glasses are being developed. More convincing and realistic 3D content will also be needed, compared with many of the games and virtual environments currently created by brands.
The metaverse must overlap with the physical world. Pokémon Go demonstrated that this is technically possible.
Metaverse worlds must be interconnected and interoperable. This remains a long way off. You cannot import your Fortnite avatar into Microsoft Teams. Rights and privileges obtained on one platform are not valid across all other platforms. Each platform uses its own unit of account, currency or cryptocurrency.

No one knows when interconnection and interoperability between platforms will become possible, or whether they will ever become possible.

This is the first major unknown.

The second concerns the availability of the material and energy resources required to build and operate the millions of physical servers and data centers needed to support these sophisticated virtual worlds, which combine 3D environments, real-time interaction and blockchain.

According to the advocates and evangelists of the “great metaverse,” this limitation simply does not exist. Nor, apparently, does the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to keep the planet habitable for living beings.

It is true that these same advocates believe technology will solve every problem, even if humans ultimately give way to artificial intelligences that they consider infinitely superior to ordinary people.

The final unknown concerns the desire of roughly seven billion ordinary people to live, through their avatars, in “enchanted” virtual worlds rather than in the real world, imperfect as it may be.

Nothing is certain, particularly because these enchanted worlds, where everything is traceable by definition, have all the characteristics of a dystopia.

In the meantime, brands will continue to invest in the metaverse because, in the short term, it provides new opportunities to generate revenue by monetizing more or less entertaining experiences and virtual products.

Whether consumers will want them remains to be seen.

Time will tell.

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