Convenience Stores Lose Their Way With Forays Into Metaverse - PYMNTS.com

Convenience stores’ caller moves into the metaverse bely industry-wide disorder astir their worth proposition.

Take, for instance, 7-Eleven. Korea Seven, a franchisee of the convenience retail elephantine successful South Korea, is gearing up to debut a conception for a metaverse store wherein avatars tin devour and portion virtual versions of the items that the retailer sells successful carnal stores. The institution volition stock this virtual store, created successful collaboration with genitor institution Lotte’s metaverse subsidiary Caliverse, successful the days up astatine CES 2023, The Korea Economic Daily reported Monday (Jan. 2).

The Korean subdivision of the convenience store made its archetypal foray into the metaverse backmost successful February, according to MetaNews.com, with a virtual acquisition made successful concern with Haegin that seemingly besides lacked built-in income opportunities. Similarly, different convenience retailers successful the state person besides tried offering metaverse games, with Korean quality outlet Aju Business Daily noting GS25 and CU’s entries into the space.

In the United States, too, convenience retailers are looking to the metaverse to make a virtual marque experience. In July, Wawa, an East Coast convenience store concatenation with astir 1,000 locations, announced its determination into the integer satellite with a bid of digital assets.

These efforts look an unusual usage of clip and wealth for convenience stores, whose worth proposition is truthful intrinsically tied, arsenic the sanction implies, to their convenient locations. These retailers connection items that tin easy beryllium acquired from different kinds of retailers — market stores, restaurants, pharmacies — with their main competitory vantage being their proximity to consumers, situated connected engaged corners and astatine state stations. Consequently, successful the metaverse, convenience stores’ worth proposition is irrelevant.

Indeed, these aboriginal moves into the abstraction bash not adjacent connection nonstop opportunities to marque real-world purchases, for which determination is astatine slightest immoderate demand. The July variation of PYMNTS’ Digital Divide study, “Digital Divide: The Move to the Metaverse,” which drew from a May survey of astir 2,700 U.S. consumers, noted that 54% consumers who person already utilized the metaverse oregon person a precocious involvement successful doing truthful were “very oregon highly interested” successful integrating edifice nutrient into their metaverse experiences, and different 19% were somewhat interested.

Perhaps they whitethorn beryllium successful the gathering accusation stage, arsenic Wendy’s is with its virtual world experiences.

“Our beingness successful the abstraction is based connected our deep-rooted attack to community development: observe earlier going each in,” Jimmy Bennett, vice president of media and societal astatine the restaurant, told PYMNTS successful an interview.

However, enthusiasm for the metaverse seems to beryllium waning. Sales of virtual reality (VR) headsets successful the U.S. successful 2022 declined 2% from a twelvemonth earlier, CNBC reported Wednesday (Dec. 28), citing NPD data. Separately, arsenic noted by CNBC, determination was a 12% year-over-year diminution successful the fig of planetary augmented world (AR) and VR headset units shipped, according to the analytics steadfast CCS Insight. These figures — the dip successful income of the hardware granting entree to virtual world (VR) — suggest that involvement successful engaging successful these integer spaces is connected the decline.

Indeed, studies find large points of friction hindering consumers’ adoption of the technology, with galore users adjacent feeling physically sick erstwhile they prosecute successful VR experiences.

“Despite the technological advancements successful virtual world (VR), users are perpetually combating feelings of nausea and disorientation, the alleged cybersickness,” 1 survey noted. “Cybersickness symptoms origin terrible discomfort and hinder the immersive VR experience.”