Fashion brands are entering the metaverse to provide highly personalised digital experiences. This appeals to Generation Z consumers who want immersive virtual experiences and to co-create fashion content for their individual style. As retail therapy takes on a whole new look, is this the end of bricks-and-mortar malls?

For your next retail therapy session, what if you were transported to a virtual mall that housed all your favourite stores? You can meet your friends there, browse the latest trends and talk to a shop assistant. You can do all this without leaving home.

This is the transformative potential of the metaverse, which goes beyond traditional retail by creating immersive spaces that leverage gaming aesthetics. In these virtual environments, consumers can create digital personas that explore and experience clothing brands independently or socially, rather than visiting a physical store or an online website to make purchases. It can become a social destination for hanging out with friends, discovering new trends and improving one’s mood.

More than virtual shopping

The metaverse allows clothing brands to move away from traditional marketing and retailing by creating immersive and interactive experiences within a 3D virtual space. Metaverse-type platforms such as Decentraland, Minecraft, Roblox and Fortnite have already collaborated with clothing brands such as Gucci, Forever21 and Burberry for a gamified retail experience. These collaborations display what the brand is about, connect with customers and build brand loyalty.

Internationally, retailers and brands are investing heavily in these collaborations to ensure that their target markets engage with their brands on these frequently visited platforms. Research by the Department of Consumer and Food Sciences in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Pretoria (UP) explores the metaverse-facilitated clothing brand engagement of Gen Z consumers. Specifically, it investigates the influence of experiential elements and their benefits.

“Research on the metaverse as a technology-facilitated platform for clothing brand engagement is scant,”
Heidi Svendsen says. “Although the experience economy has been around since 1999, and its experiential elements (entertainment, education, escapism and aesthetics) and experiential value (sensory, social, emotional, cognitive and technological) have been explored in other studies such as pop-up stores and online shopping, no related studies have been found that investigated these factors in the metaverse clothing retail or South African context.”

Digital natives value experience

There are 27.5 million Gen Z individuals in South Africa. As digital natives, they are most likely to engage with brands, products and services in virtual realms like the metaverse, significantly influencing clothing brands to adopt innovative methods that align with their digitally savvy outlook.

“Gen Z’s shopping practices and current and future market dominance make them an important market to
explore when considering the experiential benefits they seek within metaverse clothing retail,” Svendsen says.

Despite the popularity of digital platforms for buying and marketing, little is known about how metaverse-
facilitated retail can be used by marketers and retailers to promote their brands, create brand awareness, reach this cohort and maintain a competitive advantage. Understanding the experiential elements and benefits that consumers derive from visiting the metaverse is important.

Gen Z consumers’ growing adoption of digital platforms for buying clothing and brand engagement
necessitates a deeper understanding of their behaviour on these platforms and the drivers of their experiences and engagement with brands. The study uncovers the specific type of experiences consumers desire and the details retailers need to incorporate into their metaverse stores to increase customer satisfaction and, ultimately, intention to buy.

If clothing retailers understand how to manage the experiential factors that precede Gen Z’s customer brand
engagement within a metaverse-facilitated platform, they will be able to assist with developing and implementing immersive virtual clothing retail spaces that foster brand loyalty and satisfaction. The outcomes of this study can help retailers leverage the metaverse as an experiential retail format for Gen Z consumers in the South African retail context.

This story appears in Issue 9 of our Re.Search magazine. Visit our website for more to read more about our
innovative research: https://www.up.ac.za/research-matters/article/3026415/research-magazine