Pop-up metaverse stores have been a mainstay in the retail world since the 1990s. The idea behind pop-up retail is to “pop up” one day, and disappear within a few days or weeks. For customers, this sudden appearance creates a sense of surprise, and the impending disappearance creates a sense of urgency to browse and buy the products. For retailers, this sense of impermanence allows them to create a unique environment that is engaging and interactive. Oftentimes, pop-up stores appear to capitalise on events such as Chinese New Year, Halloween or Christmas. For landlords, pop-up stores give them an opportunity to gain some income for unused pieces of property. Pop-up retail can range from small and not-quite-legal enterprises such as selling fake T-shirts outside a rock concert to larger efforts by more well-known brands such as Dr. Martens and Auchentoshan.
But have you heard of pop-ups in the metaverse? To be clear, there is no one single entity called the “Metaverse”. There are currently many metaverses in existence, each with different features and functions. While Meta’s Horizon Worlds sees its metaverse as one that features virtual reality, other metaverses such as Sandbox and Decentraland feature blockchain technology as their main technological backbone. Many ambitious NFT (non-fungible token) projects such as Metalandblocks and Kanye West’s have also planned for metaverse development in their own roadmaps. Needless to say, a metaverse’s success is highly dependent on its support from its “residents”, including those who own entry tickets, land or businesses.
A virtual pop-up metaverse is a digital space that exists outside of the traditional internet. It is a 3D, interactive, and immersive environment where users can interact with each other and with digital content. The term “pop-up” refers to the ability of the metaverse to appear and disappear quickly and easily, without any need for installation or setup.
More than fifty luxury and digital brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Etro, Dundas, Hogan and The Fabricant participated in this. Within the Decentraland metaverse, there were fashion shows, pop-up stores and after parties that mimic those IRL (in real life). Visitors to the Decentraland fashion week visited the “Luxury Fashion District” which was modelled after Avenue Montaigne in Paris.
But what is so special about having pop-up stores in a virtual space such as the metaverse as compared to a physical space in real life? Brands who participate in metaverse pop-ups had several cost-saving advantages. Firstly, they were able to pare down their labour costs significantly. Instead of needing retail staff to do various roles such as inventory, answering customers’ questions about specific products/services, cross-sell products, ensure racks are fully stocked and manage returns of merchandise, pop-ups in the metaverse are able to automate many of these roles by providing an interactive user experience. Visitors were able to purchase items as NFTs (which provides a proof of purchase, with the actual physical item to be sent in real life). They also may purchase virtual items of clothing to wear on their avatars. While visiting a pop-up store, visitors scanned QR codes to see a realistic 3D rendering of the item in real time. Secondly, they are able to reduce warehousing and logistics costs as well because pop-ups in the metaverse will share the same warehousing and logistics costs with their physical operations. In other words, say you have a permanent store somewhere on Main Street in your city. You want to open a pop-up store for a week in Secondary Road about an hour’s drive away. You would need to transport the items you wish to sell in your pop-up store to that location. You may even need to temporarily rent a storage space to keep those items in (because obviously you can’t display every single item on the shelves or racks can you?) A metaverse pop-up does not have the same limitations. Whatever purchase is made in the metaverse will be sent to the main store, and items will be drawn out from the main warehouse that serves the main store. Furthermore, the shipping and handling operations for purchases in the metaverse would be the same for shipping and handling operations that serve the main store too.
Well, there have been brands that have attempted such. They created pop-up stores in real life that advertise metaverses and encourage metaverse participation. The “Metaverse, Schmetaverse” pop-up fashion event has popped up in New York and California. These events featured over 50 independent fashion designers and cult niche brands from more than 20 countries participated in this event, including Paris-based Y/ Project, Seoul’s street-wear brand Juun J, and LA-based Emily Westenberger and Maison Audmi. These brands have combined digital and physical fashion in a “phygital” way. They see that the metaverse is a great way to engage with new and younger audiences who are stoked on web3, but they also see brick-and-mortar pop-ups to be part of this immersive, interactive experience.
Along those same lines, FTX, an American cryptocurrency exchange partnered with Miami-based Wynwood Studios and The Art Plug to launch an NFT Art Party Exhibition in Miami that featured music, art and NFTs. During that event, there were musical performances, an NFT art experience and NFT drops exclusive to that event alone as means to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds. The NFT experience, in particular, featured art from some of the most popular digital artists as well as a collection of “algorithmic art” (similar to how CryptoPunks and many other large NFT collections were created) called CryptoPilled. This collection specifically has the intention of encouraging the mainstream societal adoption of web3 through the act of “taking the crypto pill.” On top of that, there were also installations featuring up-and-coming gaming metaverses that feature real-time graphics, multiplayer games, and DeFi (decentralized financial technologies), of course, sitting on top of a blockchain backbone.
Moving forward, here are some points to ponder with regards to metaverse pop-ups:
