Staging the New Retail Drama: At a Metaverse Near You!

Consumers have traditionally looked for products that could fulfill their needs

and retailers responded to demand by initially adopting product-oriented, and then

more recently, customer-oriented strategies. This shift was heavily underpinned by

technology, which enabled retailers to implement more intelligent approaches that

evolved around consumers based on their profiles. The next step in this

transformation is now towards a “unique” experience creation, with retailers

providing a retail theater experience that is different and special and consumers

enjoying an increased opportunity to interact and participate in the overall

experience. In this paper, we examine how metaverses, i.e. Internet-based virtual

worlds, and more specifically Second Life, can potentially provide the stage for this

retail theater experience. Our discussion takes place in the context of two cases that

are used to highlight the implications of retail theater for both consumers and

retailers and illustrate the opportunities and challenges they face.