Category: Blog

Shopify and Roblox unlock a new quest for innovative brands: real-world commerce capabilities on the ultra-popular gaming platform—coming in 2025. Blurring the lines between gaming and e-commerce, this new partnership enables brands on Shopify to sell physical items directly within their custom Roblox activation. While the ability to purchase real, physical items in an immersive (and/or gamified) experience is not new (peep virtual stores) this integration is a huge leap for commerce in the immersive media space. 

In a world where consumer attention spans are ever-dwindling, gamified experiences reign supreme due to the heightened level of interactivity; brands build on gaming platforms such as Roblox to deepen consumer connections and build brand affinity. With 80 million daily active users and counting, Roblox brand collaborations are a natural tactic to build online communities and cultivate brand loyalty, especially amongst young, gaming-native generations. At 2.4 hours spent daily per user—more daily time spent than YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Netflix combined—brands are able to reach new and existing customers at scale. 

Learn how to Build Your Brand on Roblox. 

New in Retail Technology: Roblox as a Shopping Platform 

Brands can leverage Roblox’s deeply-rooted social and gaming elements to not only build community among the platform’s hyper-engaged user base, but also incentivize product discovery and encourage purchases with the launch of real-world commerce capabilities. Introducing Shopify checkout functionality into Roblox enables brands on the platform to blend entertainment and commerce. 

With the Shopify integration, Roblox becomes an innovative shopping platform for cutting-edge brands to seamlessly sell physical and digital goods—diverging from traditional e-commerce interfaces into immersive 3D environments. Rather than developing Roblox activations as solely immersive brand marketing or loyalty experiences, brands will be able to adopt gaming as a way to expand their virtual online selling channels. This integration offers brands an opportunity to tap into the lucrative (and growing) gaming market with a clear ROI: driving revenue. 

Virtual Online Shopping on Roblox: Physical vs. Digital Goods

Without real-world commerce functionality, brands on Roblox are limited to selling digital products for user avatars called UGCs. These popular, digital items range from branded clothing, shoes and accessories to custom hairstyles and makeup looks, and empower user personalization. As players purchase and wear these items across brand worlds, it increases product visibility to the platform’s large, built-in user base. 

By selling physical merchandise alongside digital goods, brands can drive revenue from both realms through their Roblox activations. This is especially significant as many Roblox users emphasize the importance of digital self-expression, and how it relates to their personal, physical style. In a survey conducted by Roblox of 1,500+ Gen Z members, 84% claim their physical style is inspired by their avatar—these respondents reported they were more likely to purchase from a brand in the physical world after trying on their items in a virtual space. 

According to Roblox, 43% of Gen Z users on Roblox want to see brands create twinning items in the physical and digital worlds. This appetite for consumers to match their avatars will help inform brand strategy as the Shopify X Roblox partnership continues to be adopted; brands are likely to tie UGCs with physical goods so that shoppers are able to wear both in real life and virtually. Launching real-world commerce capabilities from Shopify makes this endeavor a seamless experience as players are able to purchase a physical copy along with the digital.

What The Shopify X Roblox Integration Means for the Future of Immersive Retail

As this integration unfolds, we can expect to see innovative retail strategies that redefine the future of commerce. For brands looking to expand their Roblox presence, the Shopify partnership will shift their metaverse strategy to include more shopping focused Roblox experiences: immersive product launch campaigns, virtual experiences for exclusive collectibles, virtual pop-up shops and more. And brands previously reluctant to develop an experience on the platform will be more open as the partnership yields a tangible ROI, with easy-to-digest KPIs.

As major players in their respective spaces, the Shopify X Roblox integration signals a rise in appetite for the immersive commerce market, bringing awareness to what’s possible even outside of the platform. Brands will eventually want to bring the gamification element inherent to Roblox back to their own websites. More control over the look and feel of brand worlds will entice brands to create their own immersive retail experiences such as virtual stores. 

How Brands Can Capitalize on Immersive Commerce

Obsess is the leading immersive shopping platform, building shopping-focused experiences for brands on Roblox. Each Obsess-powered virtual store on Roblox encourages product sales, leveraging custom branded mini-games and tactical merchandising to promote physical and digital purchases. From layout to merchandising, each aspect of design is based on 3D spatial data from over 350 virtual stores. Brands can also extend ROI and distribute their Roblox virtual store across multiple channels and devices: web-based browser experiences, spatial computers like Apple Vision Pro and VR headsets like Meta Quest.  

Whether you’re a brand looking to expand your reach or a player eager to explore new shopping experiences, this collaboration marks an exciting new chapter in the evolution of online commerce in 3D. To learn more about creating shopping-focused experiences on Roblox, book a demo or email contact@obsessvr.com. 

Virtual experiences for holiday help brands and retailers transform the online shopping experience into an interactive retail environment. An immersive VR holiday shopping experience is a 360, digital, interactive shopping destination dressed for the holidays to drive shopper engagement, sales and strengthen online communities during the busiest retail season. 

With immersive holiday activations, brands have the opportunity to create innovative, 3D activations that leave a lasting impact during the busiest time of the year. Virtual retailing solutions increase shopper engagement, expand brand relevance and elevate product education to inform buyer decisions—which is especially impactful in driving sales during the hyper-competitive holiday season. Showcase brand moments and seasonal collections in a dynamic and highly-visual environment. As a one-stop shop to discover, research and purchase gifts, VR holiday experiences have helped brands drive impressive results in engagement, reach, conversion and ROI on holiday marketing campaigns. Brands can boost engagement during peak shopping season by including elevated features such as personalized quizzes to offer tailored gift suggestions or gamification that promotes product discovery.

3D e-commerce experiences transform how shoppers interact with brands and products, deepening consumer connections—such as with curated gift guides fit for the holidays. Expand brand relevance during the holiday season by including immersive technologies that resonate with consumers, such as virtual holiday pop-ups. Launch virtual holiday pop-up shops to build buzz around curated seasonal collections and brand moments. Brands can pair virtual pop-ups with physical activations to amplify reach and extend ROI through an omnichannel experience. 

Immersive virtual holiday experiences offer brands a unique opportunity to empower consumer purchasing decisions through visual shopping functionality such as 3D product customization. Brands can also improve conversion in virtual holiday experiences by embedding interactive videos and multimedia content that enhances product education and storytelling opportunities. 

Download the Virtual Experiences for Holiday one pager to learn more about how VR holiday experiences boost engagement, expand brand relevance and elevate education for new product launches. 

Leading brands in fashion, beauty, CPG and beyond have leveraged Obsess-powered virtual holiday experiences to maximize impact during the busy retail season. Book a demo or email us at contact@obsessvr.com to engage holiday shoppers in interactive and immersive VR holiday experiences.

To start off our “Meet the Leadership Team” initiative, we would like to introduce John Mann, the Chief Technology Officer at Obsess. We asked John to share some highlights from his remarkable journey in the technology industry and some insights he’s gathered over the years. Here’s what he had to say:

Q. Could you share some highlights of your professional experience and how that path led you to Obsess today?

JM: Absolutely. My journey to Obsess was somewhat random. I had worked at a FinTech company three jobs prior, and during COVID, I was the CTO of two different companies simultaneously. When they decided to move in a different direction, I was let go and started job hunting. Through a network connection, I ended up building 5G networks and software for the government, which was completely outside of the retail space. However, I soon realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do—I missed the web development world and the startup environment.

That’s when I came across Obsess. Within a two-day window, I learned about retail, fashion and three.js, and I knew this was exactly what I wanted to pursue. My job search helped me realize what I didn’t want to do, and ultimately, it led me to Obsess, where I found the best engineering team I’ve ever worked with.

Before this, I worked at Microsoft for seven years, where I was involved in some significant projects like Xbox Live sign-up, Windows Live sign-up and even touched the Hotmail sign-up early in my career. I also worked on MSN internet access (yes, dial-up!) and had a brief stint at Getty Images, among other projects. After that, I fell in love with startups—working on everything from insurance to compliance software, travel advertisements and even parts management for planes. After trying corporate life post-Microsoft, I realized it wasn’t for me and have been in startups ever since.

Q.  What initially inspired you to enter the tech space, and what continues to motivate you today?

JM: My initial inspiration came from a friend of mine. I’ve been coding since I was nine years old. I started with a Commodore VIC-20, then a Commodore 64, and coding became a hobby throughout high school and into college. A friend of mine, Donovan (I have to give him credit!), asked me why I wasn’t studying computer science. At that point, I didn’t think I could make a living coding, but when I realized it was a real job, I thought, “I’m going to write code whether I get paid or not—so why not get paid to do it?” Donovan even got me my first job out of college.

As for what continues to motivate me, it’s the constant learning process. For example, I’ve recently learned three.js and now work on 3D retail stores. Then, with the launch of Apple Vision Pro, I started exploring SwiftUI for its operating system. Each new tech stack excites me, and I love learning enough about it to teach it, which allows me to see its strengths and weaknesses. That passion for learning and teaching keeps me going.

Q.  The launch of Apple Vision Pro was a huge moment for Obsess, developing the first-ever shopping apps on the device. How do you see the future of virtual reality and augmented reality evolving for brands, and what opportunities will this technology create, both in retail and beyond?

JM: I think the big advantage in the VR and AR world, is not just the information you’ll have access to in those spaces, it’s the virtual connections that you have—the social environment—and adding that to shopping. In Soho you see so many tourists, not shopping by themselves, but shopping with groups, and they like that social “Hey, what do you think of this?” “Do you like this outfit?” “Oh, let’s go to this store”. That social component is going to be so critical in the VR space, and the headsets actually allow you to emulate pretty closely, to be next to the person, and have that level of connection. I think that’s going to be huge. I think that’s the big future of shopping in the VR space.

Q.  I can definitely see the social aspect transforming the shopping experience. Now, onto another hot topic—AI. How is Obsess currently integrating AI into its virtual experiences, and what are some key ways AI will shape the future of these experiences?

JM: We’re already using AI in several areas, from scene and store design to generating 3D models of products. We’re also working on AI-powered virtual store associates that interact with customers, offering personalized recommendations like, “Is this makeup right for me?” or “Does this dress suit me?”. The advancement of generative AI in the last year has been remarkable, making it 5 to 10 times better than it was just a year ago.

Looking forward, AI will shape experiences through faster generation and personalization. For instance, it could analyze shopping habits to make tailored product recommendations, similar to how Spotify personalizes music suggestions. Imagine a retail experience where AI recommends items based on your shopping history, preferences and trends—creating an entirely personalized experience. Of course, there are privacy concerns and compliance issues like GDPR and CCPA, but AI-driven personalization will be a game-changer in retail.

Q.  Absolutely, personalization is going to be huge. Lastly, Obsess has worked with many leading brands across fashion, beauty, CPG and more, creating over 350 virtual experiences to date. Is there a particular experience or project that best showcases the technological strengths of the Obsess platform?

JM: There have been a lot of amazing projects, but one that stands out is Crate & Barrel. The realism we were able to achieve, from the store transitions to the rooftop views, and the ability to change scenes inside the store—it was remarkable. The way our platform managed the products, environments and interactions all came together seamlessly. Another highlight was our work on J.Crew’s app for Apple Vision Pro. That was one of the most complex and exciting projects I’ve ever worked on. The photorealistic environments, the ability to change outfits and interact with the mannequins—it was truly immersive. J.Crew on Apple Vision Pro was a whole new level, and despite being a brand-new operating system, we pulled it off with a lot of hard work and fun.

Every year, brands invest in stunning, festive campaigns such as over-the-top brick-and-mortar displays and interactive pop-up experiences to capture shopper’s attention, highlight seasonal collections and drive sales during the holiday season. With virtual holiday pop-up experiences, brands get the best of both worlds: digital extravagance and engaging interactivity in immersive pop-up experiences primed for the busy shopping season. Plus, as an added bonus, a virtual plane to showcase holiday campaign assets. 

Virtual holiday pop-ups are temporary installations that offer a unique blend of engagement and immersive storytelling, offering holiday shoppers a one-stop shop to discover, research and seamlessly purchase gifts. Just like physical holiday pop-ups, virtual holiday pop-up experiences are interactive and memorable—perfect for building buzz around seasonal collections and brand moments. 

Pair physical holiday pop-up activations with a digital counterpart to maximize the ROI and extend its reach, or create a standalone virtual holiday pop-up filled with decor and features only possible in the digital realm to engage shoppers. See how leading brands in fashion, beauty, CPG and more have worked with Obsess to create virtual pop-up experiences for their holiday campaign mix.

6 Virtual Brand Pop-ups for Holiday Online Shopping

Coach Virtual Holiday Gift Shop

Open for the holidays, Coach unveiled an ultra-engaging, highly-gamified virtual pop-up store set in a retro gift shop for shoppers on their direct-to-consumer e-commerce site. The virtual experience showcased products form the brand’s holiday collection, and featured several engaging features such as a mascot scavenger hunt game and the ability to shop with friends via live video feeds. Combining technology, innovation and creativity, Coach won a Webby Award in Retail and Shopping in the Metaverse, Immersive and Virtual Category for this virtual holiday experience. 

E.l.f. Cosmetics Virtual Holiday Workshop

The e.l.f.z worked their holiday magic with the Virtual Workshop by e.l.f. Cosmetics, coating every virtual corner with glitter and the “most OMG gifts” of the season. The virtual holiday pop-up shop enabled visitors to discover must-have beauty stocking stuffers and digital branded mini games like a matching game built into a red sequin wall. The virtual playscape was primed for shopping during the busy gifting season, with each product available for purchase directly in the workshop. Spotlighting the Sleigh the Holiday Gift Finder, shoppers could find their perfect present with a three-question quiz. 

Elizabeth Arden Holiday Experience

Revlon beauty brand, Elizabeth Arden, routinely refreshes the products and decor in their virtual experience, leveraging visual merchandising to highlight new products. For the holiday season, they showcased their curated gift sets, wrapped neatly in red and gold. Outside, visitors were greeted with a flurry of snow. Inside, they were met with festive decor, a personalized skincare quiz, new branded online games such as a two-level matching game and their infamous AI-generated gallery-style exhibit to showcase the brand’s history through AI-enhanced archival footage. 

Rao’s Virtual Holiday Saucery Pop-up

Legendary specialty foods brand Rao’s immortalized their IRL pop-up experience with a digital twin—later revealing a holiday version of the Virtual Saucery as part of their seasonal marketing campaign. The Virtual Holiday Saucery Pop-up shop empowered users to explore the brand’s best in glass products and get lost in the sauce, learning more about their premium portfolio and difference. Shoppers were immersed into Rao’s virtual brand world with seasonal decor, animated cheer and interactive features such as their custom digital jigsaw puzzle game and holiday giveaway challenge. 

Crocs Virtual Holiday Pop-up Shop

Adding to their troupe of virtual pop-ups, including their innovative Jibbitz experience, Crocs created a virtual 3D holiday experience—decking the halls with boughs of holly and seasonal Jibbitz. When entering, users could take a quiz for suggestions on the perfect present, directing them to thematic rooms with the recommended products; from glitzy, disco balls to pink, fuzzy walls, each room emphasized the personality of the famed shoe charms in it. To further engage visitors of the experience, Crocs also included media assets from their holiday campaign and a custom branded game to catch Jibbitz for an exclusive prize. 

Laura Mercier World of Beauty: Holiday Edition 

Stocking stuffers and gift sets galore, the Laura Mercier World of Beauty virtual experience got a stunning, festive makeover for the holidays. Sporting new animations and decor, the temporary look showcased the Orveon brand’s seasonal collection alongside engaging, fan-favorite features of the original experience. Visitors could still play the scavenger hunt game, take a custom color quiz and try on personalized product recommendations with AR technology. As always, each product was available for purchase directly in the virtual experience—users could even add full looks from their color quiz results and the Virtual Try-On feature. 

Immersive holiday pop-up experiences are a powerful tool for brands looking to engage shoppers in new and exciting ways. Focused on personalization and engagement, these highly-visual experiences are transforming holiday online shopping. To learn more about how to stand out this holiday season with interactive virtual holiday pop-up experiences, book a demo or email contact@obsessvr.com. 

Virtualized retail stores are fully shoppable, 3D digital twins of brick-and-mortars, enabling brands to recreate IRL locations in dynamic, virtual environments and amplify the reach. These online replicas combine the intuitive in-person shopping experience with the convenience of virtual, enabling shoppers to explore, browse and shop at exact locations from all around the world. Shoppers can navigate the store just as they would in real life and interact with products from their fingertips.

These virtual experiences extend the ROI of physical locations, expanding a brand’s reach with 24/7 accessibility, increasing engagement and conversion rates by bringing real-world aesthetics to a highly engaged online audience across verticals. But how do brands virtualize their retail storefronts? And what does the process look like? 

We sat with Obsess’ Director of Content, Melissa Molina, to discuss the top three asked questions about virtualizing a retail store and the role our team plays in the creation of these digital twins.

How Can Brands Create a Digital Twin of a Physical Store? 

Molina: To virtualize a retail store location, we recreate the physical store with photography. First: we gather reference images of the store, floor plan and square footage to get an idea of how big the store is. Based on that, we provide recommendations and a timeline for how long the process will take before coordinating a time with the brand’s on-site store team and our network of specialized photographers to begin the shoot. 

A member of the Obsess team is always onsite to direct the photoshoot, working with our photographers to mark viewpoints, ensure the store is perfect from every angle and prioritize any focus areas or hero collections. Our photographers will shoot multiple shots in each direction to capture the smallest details, and then stitch them together for a seamless 360-degree effect. We work with the onsite team to update everything for an ideal, mobile-friendly user journey. This ensures the journey feels natural and the end user is able to move around, explore and discover products freely. That’s the joy of shopping in person that we try to translate over to the photographed digital twin.

Once shoots are complete, our team builds out the digital twin in our proprietary CMS, AVA, and works with the brand to ensure all products are shoppable. Prior to launch, we also dedicate resources to ensure that all content within the store is of the utmost quality and functioning smoothly—including embedded media and campaign assets, plus e-commerce and other third-party integrations. 

How Long Does it Take to Virtualize a Retail Store?

Molina: We’ve turned around virtual retail stores in as little as just a couple of weeks! The launch timeline is dependent on a lot of different factors, including the size of the store. With larger stores that have more complex layouts, for example: it can take us a little longer. Typically, we deliver a photographed, shoppable store from end-to-end within 8-12 weeks from a brand signing with us. 

Is There a Limit on the Space that Brands Can Digitize?

Molina: There are no limitations–we can really shoot everything! We’ve shot large, multi-level stores with intricate layouts, and have digitized it all. Over the years, we’ve perfected this process, launching more than 100 digital twins, ranging from flagship locations and showrooms, to pop-up activations for leading brands in fashion, beauty, CPG, media and more.

Ready to scale your physical presence and engage a new audience of digitally-native shoppers with virtualized retail stores? Find out more by booking a demo or emailing us at contact@obsessvr.com.

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital commerce, the line between physical and virtual continues to blur. As brands navigate this hybrid reality, understanding consumer behavior within these new spaces becomes a critical data point. Enter: AVA Analytics, an innovative tool designed by Obsess to bring a new dimension of insight into 3D virtual experiences.

Imagine walking through an immersive virtual store, with each step and gaze tracked to create a more intuitive and engaging environment for users. Every interaction within these experiences is translated into data and visualized through AVA Analytics. Obsess’s proprietary metrics dashboard doesn’t just display numbers; it reveals patterns, behaviors, and preferences, enabling businesses to optimize their virtual storefronts with the same precision they would in a physical space.

At the core of AVA Analytics is the concept of spatial and behavioral analytics. It operates beyond counting clicks or tracking time spent on a page. It’s about understanding how users move through a 3D environment, what catches their eye, and how they interact with products in a space. The dashboard is foundationally supported by Google Analytics 4, integrating traditional web data with a new layer of spatial intelligence.

Obsess, in partnership with some of the world’s leading brands and retailers, has created over 350 virtual experiences. Through these, AVA Analytics has become a powerful tool, transforming raw data into actionable insights that every team member—from marketers to product designers—can use to make informed decisions.

Consider the engagement data: sessions, visitors, pages viewed, session length, product clicks, and more. This data represents the pulse of your virtual store, telling you who your customers are and what they’re doing. It isn’t static; it’s dynamic, offering insights over any selected time period, allowing businesses to track trends and adjust strategies in real time.

3D Spatial Heatmaps are among the most advanced features of AVA Analytics. They provide a bird’s-eye view of your store, where you can see exactly where visitors are spending their time. It’s akin to having a thermal map of customer interest, showing you the hot zones where products are drawing attention and the cold zones where they’re being ignored. This helps ensure that high-engagement areas are maximized for both customer satisfaction and sales.

Product and content performance metrics go even deeper. AVA Analytics allows you to see how visitors interact with specific hotspots within the virtual store. This means you can identify which products, pieces of content, or navigational arrows are engaging your audience most effectively. It’s about creating a virtual space that isn’t just visually appealing but also intuitively designed to guide visitors to what they want.

Finally, audience demographics and behavior provide a comprehensive view of who your visitors are and where they’re coming from. Detailed insights into geographic location, device distribution, and traffic sources are at your fingertips, offering a level of customer understanding that was previously unattainable in virtual environments.

To learn more about Obsess-powered virtual experiences, email us at contact@obsessvr.com or book a demo.