走进元宇宙：零售商该怎么做？

时间：2023-03-15 08:50:02 | 来源：电子商务

时间：2023-03-15 08:50:02 来源：电子商务

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本文作者：福布斯理事会成员Alexandre de Vigan

Gartner在2018年宣称，“高效且客户友好的在线商务体验不再是一个差异化因素——它是强制性的。”

但零售业的变化如此之快，以至于连这条建议快过期了。很快，出现在元宇宙中将是绝对必要的，而滞留在当下电子商务环境中的零售商将被抛在后面。至少，这就是 “有形的互联网”、去中心化的Web3.0和沉浸式体验数字世界的支持者们所主张的。

Author:Alexandre de Vigan Forbes Councils Member

Gartner declared in 2018, “An efficient and customer-friendly online commerce experience is no longer a differentiator—it is mandatory.”

But retail is changing so fast that even this advice is reaching its expiration date. Soon, a presence in the metaverse will be an absolute necessity, and retailers stranded in today’s e-commerce environment will be left behind. That, at least, is what is being argued by proponents of the “embodied internet,” a decentralized Web3 and the digital world of immersive experiences.

零售业的现状

零售业已经从具有人际接触和实体商品的实体店，转移到邮购和电话销售的远程过程，最近，进一步发展为更加遥远和抽象的数字世界。

然而，许多零售商仍在努力与顾客重新建立联系并维持品牌忠诚度。IDC表示，超过一半的零售商认为电子商务流程对他们的业务来说是最具挑战性的，而94%的零售商将客户保留作为关键的绩效指标。

作为零售业生命周期的下一个阶段，元宇宙提供了与客户更紧密的联系和更高的服务水平的承诺，包括更大程度的个性化，而如今，这种个性化很少超出折扣和产品推荐的范围。使买家能够以虚拟和三维方式试穿衣服和其他商品，如家具或汽车，甚至可以使用触觉、触摸技术，从而减少退货。

The Current State Of Retail

Retail has moved from the physical store, with its human contact and tangible goods, to the remote processes of mail order and telesales and then, more recently, to the even more distant and abstract digital world.

Many retailers, though, are still struggling to reconnect with customers and sustain brand loyalty. IDC says more than half of retailers consider e-commerce processes the most challenging for their businesses, while 94% regard customer retention as a key performance indicator.

As the next stage in retail’s life cycle, the metaverse offers the promise of closer links to customers and higher service levels, including greater personalization which, today, seldom extends beyond discounts and product recommendations. Enabling buyers to try out clothes and other goods, such as furniture or cars, virtually and in three dimensions—possibly even with haptic, touch technology—could also reduce returns.

零售商如何为元宇宙做准备

在线习惯的改变几乎肯定会使供应商受益，但这也会使他们面临新的压力。例如，在目录中，一张产品照片就足够了，而在网上，三到五张照片就成了常态，然后是一段视频。在元宇宙中开展业务的成本将包括开发3D数字资产，而在传统模式里有照片就足够了。

由于电子商务旨在将浏览者变成买家，因此在线体验的无缝性和便捷性至关重要。最近的一项调查显示，许多客户对加载缓慢或难以导航的网页感到沮丧。为此，要想在元宇宙中取得成功，就必须要有良好又便利的购物环境。

但是，在顾客能够像在商场里逛街一样轻松地在元宇宙里活动之前，开发者必须完善一个分散的结构，使之能够与顾客喜欢的任何一个扩展现实（XR）平台进行交互。

保护知识产权最有可能的手段是区块链认证。希望从更灵活的生产、更精简的库存和更少的运输中的实体货物中获得的环境收益，将超过数据处理的影响。

How Retailers Can Prepare For The Metaverse

Changing online habits will almost certainly benefit suppliers, but it will also put them under new pressures. Where one photograph of a product in a catalog was enough, for example, three to five became the norm online, followed by a video. The cost of doing business in the metaverse will include developing 3-D digital assets where traditional photography once sufficed.

As e-commerce aims to turn browsers into buyers, it is critical for the online experience to be seamless and easy. A recent survey revealed that many customers were frustrated by slow-to-load or difficult-to-navigate web pages. To that end, to succeed in the metaverse, it needs to be welcoming and easy to shop.

But before customers can move around the metaverse as easily as drifting around the mall, developers must perfect a decentralized structure capable of interacting with whichever extended reality (XR) platform customers favor.

The most likely means of protecting intellectual property will be blockchain authentication. The hope is that the environmental gains from more agile production, slimmer inventories and fewer physical goods in transit will outweigh the data-processing impact.

元宇宙的演变

元宇宙的概念比Z世代的顾客存在的时间更长，他们的期望和价值观将推动其发展。他们是否愿意从基于屏幕的电子商务转向沉浸式的购物、娱乐和交流，将取决于能否将元宇宙从可能限制可及性和造成排斥的负担中解放出来，同时提供一个灵活的、向所有人开放的社区。

宜家、Zara和Selfridges等品牌已经选择了风险较低的路线进入元宇宙，让顾客将真实世界的产品攥在手中。 路易威登、巴黎世家和耐克则更青睐可收藏的虚拟产品，甚至接受网络货币，并创造出NFT。

在建立元宇宙的同时，实体零售业也在寻找新的方式来吸引顾客。具有讽刺意味的是，这包括“零售娱乐”的趋势，即零售和娱乐的合并，通常是以一种沉浸式的方式，这也是元宇宙承诺的一部分。零售业的未来既不是全部在线，也不是全部在元宇宙；我们将继续在一个混合、全渠道的世界中运作。

The Metaverse Evolution

The metaverse concept has been around longer than Gen-Z customers, whose expectations and values will drive its development. Their willingness to shift from screen-based e-commerce to immersive buying, playing and communicating will depend on freeing the metaverse from the burdens that could limit accessibility and create exclusion while providing a community that is flexible and open to all.

Brands such as IKEA, Zara and Selfridges have chosen lower-risk routes into the metaverse that leave the customer clutching real-world products in their hands. Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga and Nike favor collectible, virtual products, even accepting cyber currencies and creating non-fungible tokens.

While the metaverse is being built, bricks and mortar retail is also searching for new ways to engage the customer. Ironically, this includes the trend of “retailtainment,” the merger of retail and entertainment, often in an immersive way, that is part of the promise of the metaverse. The future of retailing is neither all online nor all metaverse; we will continue to operate in a hybrid, omnichannel world.

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