Weekly Prompt: Amazon's Virtual Holiday Shop and other news

Amazon's 'Virtual Holiday Shop' takes cues from Roblox

Amazon has unveiled its Virtual Holiday Shop, a 3D online shopping platform designed to offer customers an immersive experience this holiday season. The shop showcases over 300 curated gifts, including toys, fashion, and technology from popular brands, similar to Walmart’s Realm virtual shopping hub. This is not Amazon’s first venture into virtual showrooms, demonstrating the company’s ongoing commitment to immersive shopping, particularly during the crucial holiday period.

Accessible via a web link on both mobile and desktop devices, the Virtual Holiday Shop provides a simplified metaverse experience. While it features 3D representations of real products, it excludes social elements such as avatars and personalisation. Navigation is straightforward, resembling the functionality of Google Maps’ Street View. No headsets or registration are required.

One of the shop’s key features is its portal system, inspired by the online gaming platform Roblox. These portals connect visitors to different themed showrooms within the virtual environment. A dedicated Virtual Toy Shop, accessible through one of these portals, offers a variety of children’s gifts from brands like Lego and Disney. Further portals lead to other themed experiences, including a Disney "Once Upon a Cottage" and a Harry Potter world. This system is designed to enable seamless navigation between different product categories and branded experiences, mirroring the interoperability often associated with metaverse platforms.

Visitors to the Virtual Holiday Shop can purchase items by clicking on their virtual representations, which will bring up a link to the product page on Amazon’s website, allowing for easy transactions. Amazon plans to update the shop’s product selection throughout the holiday season and is also incorporating gift suggestions through its AI Shopping Guides, which use AI to aggregate product information for potential gift items.

The Virtual Holiday Shop is primarily designed for U.S. customers, though international users can access the shop online. However, some features and product availability may be limited outside the U.S.

Sources:  AdAge, Retail Dive, Trend Hunter

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