trends Archives

The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Brand on Roblox

Posted on March 25, 2024April 26, 2024 by sammi

Branded experiences on Roblox are revolutionizing the way companies engage with younger, digitally-native audiences. For brands aiming to connect with the next generation, understanding and participating in this vibrant ecosystem is not just advantageous; it’s imperative. With over 70 million daily active users, Roblox presents a dynamic platform where the boundaries between gaming, social interaction and digital commerce blur—offering companies a vibrant space to engage a community of highly attentive consumers.

What Are Roblox Experiences?

At the heart of Roblox lies a diverse array of user-generated games and virtual environments, collectively known as Roblox experiences. These are not just games but immersive worlds where users can explore, create and interact. This dynamic blend of entertainment and creativity makes Roblox a unique platform for users and creators alike.

Why Brands Should Consider Roblox

Roblox presents an unparalleled opportunity for brands to engage with a vast, engaged audience. With millions of daily users, the platform offers:

Reach: Roblox’s massive, global user base comprises primarily Gen Z, Gen Alpha and younger millennials, providing direct access to hard-to-reach demographics that are less responsive to traditional media.
Engagement: The interactive nature of Roblox experiences fosters deep engagement, allowing brands to build stronger connections with their audience.
Innovation: Roblox is at the cutting edge of digital interaction, offering brands a space to innovate and experiment with new forms of engagement and storytelling.

Collaborating with a specialized partner like Obsess can help brands navigate Roblox’s complexities to create custom, branded experiences that resonate with audiences. By harnessing Obsess’s expertise, brands like Brooklyn-based haircare brand amika have successfully entered Roblox, offering engaging content that aligns with their brand narrative and overall marketing objectives.

Considerations When Building on Roblox

To maximize the impact of a Roblox experience, consider the following:

Engagement is Key: Design your space to encourage interaction and exploration, making it memorable and shareable.
Social Features Matter: Utilize Roblox’s social capabilities to promote community building and user-generated content, amplifying your brand’s reach.
Stay Authentic: Ensure your Roblox presence aligns with your brand’s values and aesthetic, creating a cohesive and authentic experience.
Take Advantage of UGC: Roblox allows brands to sell branded digital items for user avatars. Any avatar accessory (also called a “UGC” in Roblox) can be sold as a digital item in a brand’s Roblox experience—from clothing to shoes, handbags, hats, sunglasses, jewelry and even makeup looks and hairstyles. Once a Roblox user purchases an item, they can wear it to all Roblox experiences where other users will see their outfit, hence increasing brand awareness and encouraging others to purchase the same item from your store.

Why Build a Branded Experience on Roblox?

60% of Roblox users are Gen Z. The collection of apps on the platform enables highly engaging virtual gaming worlds, which brands can leverage to reach new audiences and increase loyalty.

Obsess works with Roblox to create shoppable, focused, high fidelity virtual stores that give brands a more seamless and manageable entry point onto the platform. While traditional Roblox worlds focus on incentivizing game play, Obsess-powered virtual stores in Roblox leverage gamification and tactical merchandising to promote purchases.

Examples of Roblox Experiences Created by Brands

Brands, such as Nike, Gucci, Forever 21 and Walmart have all created experiences in Roblox to extend their brand story to a new audience. See how these brands and more are engaging Gen Z with Roblox experiences: https://obsessar.com/blog-roblox-brand-experiences/.

How to Maximize ROI in Roblox

To maximize ROI on Roblox, brands can work with Obsess to create a data-backed store layout that encourages product sales—all based on Obsess’s 3D spatial data from over 300 other virtual stores. This is a new type of experience for the Roblox platform; one that prioritizes shopping and tactical merchandising.

Brands can also distribute their Roblox virtual store across multiple channels and devices. Every Obsess virtual store can be released across mobile and desktop on a brand’s website, plus spatial computing and VR/AR devices like Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest.

Ready to Learn More? Book a demo with Obsess to learn more about how to get started with building a shopping-focused Roblox experience for your brand.

Capturing a New Generation of Consumers: Insights from eTail West 2024

Posted on March 7, 2024April 26, 2024 by sammi

At eTail West 2024, Obsess’ CEO and Founder, Neha Singh, joined a panel with retail leaders from Nike and ThirdLove to discuss the evolution of online retail and its future. The conversation, centered on attracting and engaging the next generation of consumers, took a deep dive into some of the innovative strategies that are setting new benchmarks for the industry.

Neha’s participation was driven by Obsess’ commitment to understanding the unique shopping preferences and digital behaviors of younger consumers. This demographic’s expectations are shaped by rapid technological advancements and a seamless blend of online and offline experiences. The panel provided a platform to discuss how brands are pioneering new ways to captivate this audience.

Leading with Virtual Stores in a Gaming-Native World

One of the highlights of the discussion was the emphasis on virtual stores and their significance in engaging a gaming-native audience.

With more than 80% of consumers today saying that they play video games, and an even higher percentage for Gen Z, the integration of gamification into shopping experiences is not just innovative—it’s essential. Obsess’ virtual store platform represents the forefront of this integration, offering immersive, interactive environments that draw on the engagement mechanics of video games.

During the panel, Neha shared how Obsess-powered virtual stores are designed to make shopping more dynamic and personalized, incorporating features like in-scene videos, dynamic merchandising and AI-powered content. This approach resonates deeply with a demographic that values engaging, interactive digital experiences, bridging the gap between gaming and shopping to create a memorable, captivating online environment.

The Future of Shoppable Video and AI Personalization

The panel also discussed the untapped potential of shoppable video in the U.S. and the transformative impact it has had in other markets. The conversation ventured into the role of AI in retail, particularly in personalizing the shopping journey.

At Obsess, we’re leveraging AI to revolutionize how consumers discover products, using new technologies such as virtual assistants and AI-powered recommendation engines that provide tailored shopping experiences. This technology is instrumental in meeting the demands for personalization among younger consumers, offering them recommendations and experiences that align with their unique preferences and shopping behaviors.

Shaping the Future of Online Retail

The discussions at eTail West 2024 underscored the transformative impact of emerging technologies on online retail. As companies continue to innovate and push the boundaries of what is possible in e-commerce, online customer experiences will only continue to get better and more akin to real life.

By embracing new technologies, such as 3D virtual stores and AI-driven personalization, brands are poised to not only respond to the evolving needs of the next generation of consumers; they will actively lead retail into its next era.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest retail technology insights? Follow @Obsess on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/obsess/.

The Retail Technology Trends Predicted to Dominate 2024

Posted on January 8, 2024April 26, 2024 by sammi

We are only a few short days into 2024 but, as always, the retail industry is already looking toward its next evolution. While 2023 was defined by a mass awakening to the power and availability of AI and machine learning, 2024 will take these learnings and employ them at scale to deepen personalization efforts and bring customer-centricity further into the forefront. Retailers will look to create hyper-personalized, differentiated, valuable customer experiences that focus on brand memorability and meaning. Obsess predicts that 2024 retail technologies will revolve around four primary trends:

The advent of spatial computing with Apple’s new Vision Pro device.
A persistent growth in AI-driven personalization and predictive content.
Gamification’s triumph as a necessity in online shopping.
The evolution of dynamic merchandising strategies to enhance customer engagement and drive cross-selling initiatives.

Retail Technology Trend Prediction #1: 2024’s newest buzz phrase will be: “spatial computing,” courtesy of Apple Vision Pro.

The new year is set to embrace the mainstream emergence of “spatial computing,” marked by Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro device. This technology—driven by enhanced processors, ultra-high definition and global network speeds—promises revolutionary immersive shopping experiences. By integrating 3D digital interfaces mirroring human interactions, spatial computing transcends conventional online shopping encounters.

The arrival of Apple Vision Pro heralds a new era by seamlessly merging virtual and physical realms through a blend of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). This device allows products to appear life-size in a user’s physical space via AR, enabling interaction through intuitive gestures with eyes, hands and voice. Although positioned at a premium price point, it aligns naturally with brands targeting innovation or luxury customers, typically gaining traction through early app store downloads.

Over the next year and the subsequent five or so years, expect spatial computing devices and apps to gain widespread adoption—providing a more natural, intuitive, and human-centered way of engaging with technology. The emergence of Apple Vision Pro could very well draw similarities from the advent of the iPhone.

Retail Technology Trend Prediction #2: AI will continue to dominate content creation.

AI continues to hold a pivotal role in crafting highly personalized and predictive content in retail, and even more notably in e-commerce. Advanced algorithms and data analytics decode intricate consumer behaviors, enabling tailored shopping experiences. From intuitive chatbots offering real-time assistance to precise product recommendations, AI-generated content and experiences will continue to enhance engagement and satisfaction aligned to bespoke customer journeys.

Obsess, in partnership with Coresight Research, reported in Q4 2023 that immersive experiences would be a top three priority investment area for brands and retailers during the following 12 months, Within immersive experiences, data/AI-enabled content for personalization ranked as the top investment priority.

According to the report: 71% of US-based brands and retailers have already invested in data/AI-enabled content for personalization. Of these brands and retailers, 77% reported significant or moderate increases in online sales.

Retail Technology Trend Prediction #3: Gamification will go from a nice-to-have to a need-to-have in e-commerce.

In order to stay relevant in 2024: retailers will need to incorporate principles of game play into their online shopping experiences. With over 80% of consumers engaged in video games, integrating gamified shopping experiences becomes pivotal to capturing and retaining younger demographics.

Gamified shopping content will become a direct line for brands to capture the attention of Gen Z. Similar to how social media once served as the ticket to captivate millennials, branded gaming will be the gateway for businesses to connect with Gen Z and younger demographics.

For brands and retailers to thrive in the current shopping landscape, embracing gamification as a core element of their digital approach will be crucial. Obsess has created over 300 virtual stores for brands, and the data from these stores proves that when brands add gamification into their virtual shopping experiences; they increase shoppers’ likelihood to add to cart by 10X, compared to when they do not include the feature at all.

Retail Technology Trend Prediction #4: Dynamic merchandising will elevate customer engagement.

Online retail strategies in 2024 will lean toward more dynamic merchandising, emboldened by data-driven insights and AI-driven analytics. Digital marketplaces will adeptly adjust product displays and content in real-time to show a wider, yet more tailored, assortment. These immersive displays will not only increase engagement and retention, but they will also unlock new opportunities for cross-sells and up-sells.

Virtual stores are types of immersive 3D experiences that harness spatial analytics, enabling the continuous fine-tuning of shopping environments using live data. Similar to physical store setups, virtual store managers can analyze browsing and buying patterns by rearranging products in diverse sections of the 3D space efficiently and cost-effectively.

Summarizing the trends that will shape the future of retail technology.

2024 promises to redefine the retail technology landscape with:

Apple Vision Pro leading spatial computing advancements.
AI’s continued dominance in crafting hyper-personalized content.
The imperative integration of gaming principles into online shopping.
Dynamic merchandising strategies that enhance engagement and cross-sells in e-commerce.

Brands and retailers that embrace these trends will cement their roles as critical players in the next generation of online shopping.

Insights into Immersive Experiences in Retail, based on a 2023 Survey

Posted on January 8, 2024April 26, 2024 by sammi

In the rapidly evolving world of retail, the integration of immersive experiences has emerged as a pivotal strategy to captivate and engage consumers. In Q4 2023, Obsess partnered with Coresight Research to conduct a study of 150 retail decision-makers, which sought to understand how retailers are thinking about immersive experiences—including how they are prioritizing investments, and which types of results they are seeing.

The full report is available to download for free here.

The report’s findings forecast the AR market to soar to $31.3 billion by 2027. Meanwhile, the VR market, though smaller, is set for significant growth, projected to escalate from $12.9 billion in 2023 to $20.7 billion by 2027. The growth rate of VR is notably 1.5 times greater than that of AR, highlighting a compelling trend in technological advancement and consumer adoption.

However, what makes this growth even more compelling is the insight derived from the survey conducted among industry respondents. More than half of all surveyed brands and retailers indicated that they would increase their investment in immersive experiences during the next three years. Likewise, an overwhelming 86% of respondents indicated a definite intent to increase their investment in immersive experiences over the next 10 years.

This high planned adoption rate within the next few years highlights an urgency around investing in immersive experiences. Despite economic challenges, surveyed brands and retailers have signaled that they will continue to invest in immersive experiences, emphasizing the value that companies believe they stand to gain from investing in this area.

Immersive experiences encompass a wide spectrum—from virtual stores and VR/AR-enabled try-on to AI-driven content for personalization and social shopping.

The impact of virtual stores is tangible, with an impressive 88% uplift in sales after investing in virtual stores. Likewise, brands partnering with Obsess witness up to 10X longer session times in virtual stores compared to traditional e-commerce platforms.

The survey identified seven types of immersive experiences, with four emerging as front-runners in revolutionizing consumer engagement within retail.

Interestingly, virtual try-on, virtual fashion shows/events, and livestreaming are already well-established immersive experiences in the market. The remaining four—virtual stores, gamified shopping experiences, social shopping, and data/AI-enabled content for personalization—are gaining traction among brands and retailers as innovative avenues to boost sales and enrich consumer interactions.

The survey delved into the considerations that companies planning to invest in each type of immersive experience deemed most critical within the upcoming 12 months. Notably:

Virtual Stores and Gamified Shopping Experiences: Retailers prioritize a seamless user experience, with a “user-friendly interface” ranking high. Additionally, the importance of “mobile responsiveness” underscores the shift towards catering to mobile-savvy consumers.
Data/AI-enabled Content for Personalization: Companies emphasize tailored engagement, leveraging data insights for personalization. Notably, “data analytics and insights” top the list for virtual stores, signaling a shift towards leveraging consumer behavior data, similar to the approach used in physical stores.
Social Shopping: Cost emerges as a critical factor, potentially attributed to expenses related to creator-generated content, celebrity endorsements, and user-community activities.

These insights underscore a strategic shift in how retailers perceive and approach immersive experiences. Beyond the technological novelty, companies prioritize aspects that directly impact consumer engagement and satisfaction, aiming to minimize friction and enhance the overall experience.

The report illuminates the evolving landscape of immersive experiences in retail, offering a roadmap for businesses aiming to navigate and harness the potential of new technologies. The integration of immersive experiences into retail is not merely a trend but a strategic imperative, aligning with the evolving preferences of modern consumers. As businesses invest in these technologies, they aim to not only boost sales but also glean invaluable insights into consumer behavior, enabling more informed marketing strategies and innovative approaches to store layout and inventory management.

Download the full report here.