Discoverability and a new hope for e-commerce in the metaverse!
And a love letter to Parisian department stores
I just got back from Paris, a sentence I can’t help dropping in every social interaction since my love for the City of Light is well past generic cliche levels.
The TLDR
I love shopping - Department Stores Allow for 360-Degree Discoverability
I love dorky VR experiences - Immersive VR Also Allows for 360-Degree Discoverability
I also love Instagram influencers, so sue me - Instagram/TikTok Don’t Do Curated Discoverability. And E-Comm DEFINITELY Doesn’t
How can we learn from these experiences for a better virtual shopping experience- What Will Lure In Shoppers In The Metaverse?
Department Stores Allow for 360-Degree Discoverability
As usual, my trip had a lot of shopping. When Diana Vreeland said the eye has to travel, I am certain she meant between Samaritaine and Bon Marche* and back again, no? And because I’m me, I couldn’t help thinking how stores of the metaverse will function, ideally.
Anyway, post-pandemic, I haven’t spent a lot of time in department stores, and I was struck by the obvious. Discoverability is amazing in department stores. The consumer's 360 vision is there to be delighted by consumer goods. These two LVMH-owned department stores did not disappoint in giving me opportunities to discover, particularly with their cutesy summer-themed shops within shops, but really all over the store. Wonderful stuff. An iteration of the grocery store candy-filled “check out aisle.” These mini-stores were themed, intriguingly branded, and had entry-level prices (considering the rest of the merch). I was seeing and buying things I didn’t intentionally seek out. And that an algorithm hasn’t surfaced to me.
For those of you who like shopping, I’m sure I’m not spitting any new news. At their best, well-curated stores are a blast.
Immersive VR Also Allows for 360-Degree Discoverability
Another thing I discovered (because I was there to speak at a lovely conference for CJ that was held in La Defense, a part of Paris I’d never been to before) was the Eternal Notre Dame. No, not that Notre Dame, but an immersive VR tour of the cathedral through the ages, including the current restoration. Back to Ms. Vreeland, my eyes traveled from 1250 to the present day; it was awesome. My favorite use case, because I’m a dork, for VR is historical tours of places like Shakespeare’s London and Pompeii before the volcano erupted. What was it like?! And I’m confident I’ll get to see that soon enough. Yes!
Anyway, my purpose in mentioning the Eternal Notre Dame is to mention what my eyes saw that I didn’t seek out, if we assume that the point of the tour was to see the Cathedral. I saw the countryside of Paris in the 17th century from the vantage point of the top of the cathedral. The original positionings (super close!!) of the surrounding buildings. And the frightening drop bell ringers might face. E.g., immersive, 360, and unexpected. Almost as fun as shopping in Le Bon Marche. These images or viewpoints weren’t the point of the tour, but it doesn't matter; in a 360 world, we’re not forced into one tiny screen in front of us. There’s, literally, a whole world to explore.
(is there any non-lame way to capture immersive experiences for a 2d blog?)
Instagram/TikTok Don’t Do Curated Discoverability. And E-Comm DEFINITELY Doesn’t
Let’s circle back to the little screen you're probably reading this on. Instagram and TikTok have overtaken consumer media for a particular type of person, let’s say, amongst others, women 18-44. And anyone who spends time on there knows the algorithm is changing. I don't see the people I follow anymore. And I follow them for a reason! Rumor has it insta going even farther into TikTok territory, showing you EVEN MORE things from people you don’t follow. I’m not a fan of this as a user. I follow them because I like them. This is how I discover what I want to buy. I pay influencers with my eyeballs; in return, they scan hm.com every morning for the newest, coolest stuff for me to buy. This is our value exchange. Yes, Zuckerberg is in the middle, which is complicated, and maybe web3 will solve this, but for now, this is the deal. I used to subscribe to Vogue. Now, I “subscribe” to Courtney Grow. This is e-comm discoverability because every actual e-commerce site effectively sucks (pardon my French) at surfacing a novel, delightful, and pragmatic selection. But Courtney has my back.
I spent almost 5 years at Taboola, an ad:tech company based on the idea of surfacing things you might be interested in but aren’t searching for. I have a lot of respect for the concept of algorithm-driven discoverability. There might even be a perfect marriage of the two, human curation and algorithm curation working together in future digital retail.
What Will Lure In Shoppers In The Metaverse
But for now, IRL shopping has to work doubly hard to lure you in. As we’ve seen in malls, you need to be pulled in for many reasons to beat the convenience and selection of general e-comm. The Westfield London is my fave for this cornucopia of shopping plus delights. Mini golf! Japanese supermarket! Children’s museum! Whatever! It’s a zoo and always busy.
So if I were a retailer looking at the metaverse, this set of ideas, of 360 discoverability, of space beyond a screen, of novelty, would be top of mind. I don’t think I can answer at this moment if in the metaverse discovery will be easier or harder? You may have an option to increase discovery via proximity. High streets work(ed) because you went for one thing and ended up doing another. Much like the Westfield. If we are going to actually walk around Decentraland or other, this might be a great solution.
Undoubtedly, 3D stores, in general, lend themselves to more native discovery. Combine physical, 360-degree merch assortment with a curated POV and an algorithm. Might be an opportunity for genius. But just transferring physical stores to the metaverse probably won’t be the solution. Many I've seen thus far feel more like a gimmick, a test case, than an unbridled love letter to the fun that is consumption. In any case, as usual, mostly questions in this newsletter, very few answers, but I so desperately look forward to being able to “walk through” a virtual Le Bon Marche from the comfort of my California home that I’m half writing this as a hope and a prayer.
PS- Confirmed, IMO - London has the best street style, but Paris has the best shopping
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