Platforms like Roblox have become serious commercial venues for enterprise AI-driven retail and consumer goods strategies. Gucci, Kids Foot Locker and others have already planted flags there. What’s instructive isn’t just who’s participating, but how quickly the retail and consumer goods solution landscape has expanded to treat virtual presence as a growth channel, not an experiment.
When, not if, you expand into the metaverse
Most retail leaders aren’t debating whether to enter the metaverse. They’re debating how fast. And that shift in framing matters, because virtual commerce isn’t just another digital channel to bolt onto an existing strategy. Done well, it reshapes the entire digital transformation conversation, from how brands collect and act on customer data to how they structure engagement across physical and digital touchpoints.
Consider what’s actually at stake. Virtual environments generate behavioral data at a granularity that 2D commerce simply can’t match. Every avatar movement, dwell time, and virtual try-on becomes a signal. Retailers with mature enterprise AI solutions and data infrastructure can turn that signal into action, whether that’s personalizing the next visit, refining demand forecasts, or informing product development decisions in near real time.
But the opportunity goes beyond data capture. What’s emerging is a fundamentally different customer relationship model. Brands that treat the metaverse as an isolated experiment will extract limited value from it. Those who see it as part of a connected digital ecosystem, one that informs supply chain modernization, field service delivery, and customer experience transformation, will find themselves operating in a different competitive tier entirely.
Nike’s AR-enabled flagship store bridging Nikeland and physical retail isn’t a novelty. It’s a proof point. The retailers positioned to lead aren’t waiting for a mature playbook. They’re building capability now, pairing digital transformation consulting with AI engineering services to move at the pace this moment demands.
How retailers can drive sales and profits in virtual worlds
Five distinct moves define where real commercial value lives in the metaverse. Each one demands a different capability set, and together they form a digital transformation consulting agenda that goes well beyond standing up a 3D store.
Reinventing the store in 3D is the entry point. Virtual environments let retailers expand into new markets without real estate commitments, and Brillio’s work with an outdoor apparel brand shows how a fully functioning metaverse store, complete with simulated terrain and augmented-reality try-ons, can turn exploration into purchase.
But a store without a digital asset strategy leaves money on the table. NFTs are no longer speculative novelties for retailers. They’re a mechanism for selling exclusive goods, rewarding loyalty, and even granting physical-world privileges. Brands from luxury fashion to mass-market apparel are already seeing demand.
The third move is experiential commerce, where session length and repeat visits become the real metrics. American Eagle logged 25 million visitors and 14 million try-ons in a single metaverse activation. That’s enterprise AI applications territory in terms of the data generated and the customer insight unlocked.
Fourth, the supply chain. 3D modeling accelerates product lifecycle management, tightens demand forecasting, and cuts cycle time from design to shelf. This is digital transformation with AI at the operational layer, not just the customer-facing one.
Fifth, field service reimagined. IoT-driven asset monitoring, avatar-based expert consultations, and NFT-powered incentives are already live in Brillio client work. Each capability compounds the others. That’s the real case for moving now.
Reinvent the store in 3D
Think about what physical retail actually offers that a website can’t: the ability to wander, discover something unexpected, try it on, and feel part of something larger than a transaction. Online shopping, for all its convenience, has never quite replicated that. The metaverse changes the equation.
A 3D virtual store isn’t just a digital storefront, it’s a new kind of retail environment that combines the reach of e-commerce with the social, sensory pull of brick-and-mortar. Brands get the best of both without the commercial real estate bill. That’s not a hypothetical. Brillio is already working with an outdoor apparel and footwear retailer that wants to grow into new markets without the overhead of physical expansion. The pilot metaverse store built for this client features brand merchandise, augmented reality try-ons via headset or mobile phone, and simulated terrain experiences that let shoppers feel the product in context before they buy. Customers can also purchase physical goods for home delivery, right from inside the virtual environment.
For enterprise retailers navigating digital transformation, this is where the opportunity gets genuinely interesting. Customer data generated inside these environments is richer and more behavioral than anything a 2D product page produces, feeding smarter demand planning, more precise personalization, and tighter digital supply chain optimization. The virtual store isn’t a side project. Built right, it becomes a core node in a retailer’s broader digital commerce strategy.
Create an NFT strategy
NFTs grabbed headlines as speculative collectibles, but for retailers the real story is more grounded and more interesting. They’re a development tool for exclusive commerce, one that can drive loyalty, reward engagement, and open entirely new revenue lines without replacing any existing channel.
The numbers tell a clear story. Nearly one in four Americans aged 18-34 say they’d be more inclined to use NFTs if those tokens carried tangible privileges, think dedicated checkout lanes or access to limited-edition drops. That’s not a niche audience. And Fashion Week organizers proved the commercial case when 250 NFTs priced at $100 each sold out, granting buyers physical access to runway shows and product releases.
Brands are testing every tier of the market. At the mass end, The Gap sells NFTs for digital t-shirts featuring original artist designs. Under Armour sold out a limited-edition metaverse-wearable sneaker in minutes to mark Stephen Curry’s record-breaking shot. At the luxury end, Dolce & Gabbana auctioned a couture collection spanning both physical garments and virtual wearables, reportedly generating the equivalent of $5.7 million.
What connects these examples? Each NFT delivers something real, a product, an experience, a privilege. Retailers serious about digital commerce and retail digital transformation should approach NFTs not as a speculative side bet but as a structured layer of their customer engagement strategy, one that rewards the customers most likely to drive long-term value.
Make metaverse shopping experiential
Replicating a store in 3D is the floor, not the ceiling. The real opportunity is using the metaverse’s native strengths to engage consumers in ways physical and digital retail simply can’t match, and early numbers are proving this out.
American Eagle’s spring break activation inside Roblox’s Livetopia drew 25 million visitors, logged 14 million try-ons, and held Gen Z shoppers for an average of seven minutes per session. For a generation that context-switches constantly, seven minutes of focused brand attention is genuinely significant. That result came not from merchandising, but from designing an experience worth inhabiting.
This is where digital transformation with AI changes the calculus for retailers. Generative AI now makes it feasible to personalize virtual environments at scale, tailoring product recommendations, digital filters, and even consultation flows to individual shoppers in real time. Brillio’s work with a global beauty brand demonstrates exactly this shift. Together, we’re building immersive launch environments featuring AI-powered try-on tools, personalized makeup consultations, and avatar-based digital filters that let consumers explore new products on their own terms, at their own pace.
But the strategic insight here goes beyond any single activation. Retailers who treat the metaverse as just another channel will underinvest in what makes it distinct. Those who approach it as a data-rich, two-way engagement platform, one that feeds enterprise AI solutions and informs real-world decisions, will pull ahead. The experience is the product. How retailers engineer that experience, and what they learn from it, is where competitive distance gets built.
Plan new frontiers for the supply chain
Most retailers think of the metaverse as a storefront. The smarter play is recognizing it as a supply chain tool. Virtual environments generate extraordinary amounts of behavioral and transactional data, and that data becomes the engine for sharper demand planning, leaner SKU management, and faster product lifecycle decisions.
Consider what that means in practice. A 3D product design tested in a virtual store can reveal purchase intent signals before a single unit hits a warehouse. Suppliers, merchandising teams, and logistics partners can collaborate inside the same digital environment, compressing the feedback cycles that typically slow new product launches to a crawl. For retailers managing supply chain modernization at enterprise scale, this is where the metaverse starts earning its place in the operating model, not just the marketing plan.
Macroeconomic volatility has made forecast accuracy a boarder-room priority. AI-powered demand planning, fed by rich virtual-world data, can reduce the guesswork that leads to overstock, markdowns, and missed fulfillment windows. Digital transformation with AI applied to the supply chain isn’t theoretical here; it’s already cutting cycle times and improving sourcing decisions for retailers willing to connect their virtual presence to their physical operations. The two environments don’t compete. They reinforce each other, and the data flowing between them is where genuine competitive advantage gets built.
Reimagine customer/field services
Most retailers think of the metaverse as a storefront. Few consider what it does to the service layer behind that storefront. That gap is where real competitive advantage lives.
Virtualization changes field service economics in ways that are hard to overstate. When IoT-enabled real-time asset monitoring feeds into predictive maintenance workflows, service level agreements stop being reactive commitments and start being proactive ones. Technicians intervene before failure, not after. Costs come out of the value chain, and customer retention improves almost as a byproduct.
The customer-facing side shifts just as dramatically. Through avatar-based interactions, consumers and business buyers can consult entomologists, product specialists, and support reps inside a fully immersive virtual environment rather than waiting on hold or scrolling a FAQ page. Brillio built exactly this for a global pest control company, a virtual storefront where customers explore pest solutions, view product demos, interact with kiosks, and book appointments, all while earning NFT coupons redeemable at purchase. The result: higher engagement, improved conversion, and a measurably richer customer experience.
Training is the other underexplored lever. Field personnel can practice complex service scenarios inside virtual environments, building competence without the cost or risk of real-world exposure. For enterprises already invested in digital transformation with AI, this kind of enterprise AI application in service delivery connects directly to broader automation and engineering goals. The metaverse isn’t a marketing play. For forward-thinking retailers, it’s an operational one.
Next steps for retailers
Starting a metaverse journey doesn’t mean mastering every emerging technology at once. The smarter play is a phased approach: pick one virtual experience, learn from it, and build from there. Retailers who treat digital transformation consulting as an ongoing discipline rather than a one-time project tend to move faster and waste less.
Three principles guide the retailers seeing real results. First, phase in your presence deliberately. Afterpay entered virtual worlds by letting shoppers buy NFTs with US dollars rather than crypto. Walmart chose differently, leaning into digital currency. Neither choice is wrong. What matters is knowing your organization, your customer base, and what failure looks like before you spend.
Second, experiment with engagement on its own terms. The metaverse isn’t a digital billboard. Brands earning attention in virtual environments build genuine stories, the kind that don’t feel like ads. Barilla’s three-minute film with Roger Federer moved product not by selling, but by connecting. That instinct translates directly into virtual world strategy.
Third, think enterprise-wide. Retailers who view the metaverse only as a storefront miss the bigger opportunity. Supply chain visibility, field service training, customer data that feeds retail intelligence solutions and AI digital transformation decisions, these are all in play. The virtual world doesn’t sit outside your digital transformation strategy. It accelerates it.
The canvas is open. The retailers building now are the ones who’ll set the terms for everyone else later.
