The Retailer Autumn Edition 2022

The “digital backpack” Every user entering the metaverse potentially brings their digital backpack with them. This means each user has mul tiple identifiers attached to their login credentials or avatar about who they are, where they are based, language they speak, and perhaps even details of friends, interests and shopping preferences and habits. The content of a digital backpack will also be affected by whether they are exploring an open or closed metaverse and its links with other social media accounts. Whilst this has potential benefit for retail ers in terms of targeting and personalisation opportunities, it also entails potential global compliance requirements on a scale that has not been seen before. If you are targeting users in a virtual world but their “digital backpack” links them to a particular jurisdiction then the consequence of this may be a requirement to ensure that your interactions also comply with the consumer and data protection laws where that user is physically based.

If you’d like to talk more about the metaverse, please contact Paul, Tania or Olly.

Followthe customer Keep track of your customers and predict their needs and desires. Depending on your sector and products or services, your customers might be early adopters in the metaverse space, or they might be brand new to the metaverse and the ways it can meet their changing demands and expectations.

Paul Joukador +44 20 3060 6239 paul.joukador@rpc.co.uk

TaniaWilliams +44 20 3060 6666 tania.williams@rpc.co.uk

Consider your workforce Your activities in the metaverse may require additional talent investment, with digital product and marketing teams needing to be expanded, restructured or outsourced in order to build out your metaverse skill set.

Oliver Bray +44 20 3060 6277 oliver.bray@rpc.co.uk

Keep experimenting Explore, and where possible try out the tech currently available to see what will work for your business. Could AI bolster and target your customer service offering? Or could you experiment with NFTs to enhance consumer experience? Or could gamification be, erm, the name of the game?!

Watch and learn Keep an eye on your competitors’ metaverse activities. What are they trying and on which platforms? What appears to be working well for them and what doesn’t?

This article has been adapted from an article originally featured in the Autumn edition of Retail Compass , RPC's guide to key upcoming legal and policy changes affecting Retail and Consumer Brands and the critical thinking on those crucial, need-to-know issues.