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Roblox: Brands’ New Virtual Gold Mine?

According to the company’s profits update, Roblox had an average of 49.5 million daily active users in Q4 2021, a 33% increase year-over-year. Since then, brands have been eager to get in front of the platform’s native audience, having the choice to either sell virtual items, replicating their physical products or design and develop branded virtual experiences for users to enjoy, ultimately providing brands with a brand-new revenue stream.

What exactly is Roblox, and why does it matter for retail?

Roblox is home to millions of games created by its community of 9.5 million developers. The platform monetizes these experiences by permitting brands and creators to sell digital items in their in-game stores or on its avatar marketplace in return for its virtual money translated as Robux, which users can purchase using real-world money.

Roblox has previously shared that developers and brands acquire an average of 27% in payouts, with 24.5% coming from transactions and additional payouts based on engagement.

Among the Gen-Z established audience that uses Roblox lies the potential of making serious cash for retailers. “This is kind of a natural trajectory for brands,” said Roblox chief business officer Craig Donato. “The first is that many brands get in by simply creating virtual merch. Gucci came on our platform; they just started offering virtual merchandise and had a lot of success.”

Gucci made a splash last May when a virtual Gucci bag sold in the video game world Roblox for $4,115, more than the actual physical purse in-store price, retailing for $3,400. Following this record, Gucci focused on its digital-first approach by launching the Gucci Garden, an innovative multi-media experience i that honours the brand’s immersive and inventive vision.

“The Gucci Garden experience is a phenomenal showcase of Roblox’s latest developer tools and lighting technology. The Roblox engine powers a visually spectacular series of high-fidelity environments with dynamic, personalized textures and patterns for each visitor’s mannequin. Additionally, the newly released developer avatar editor gives visitors the freedom to purchase and wear exclusive Gucci virtual items directly in the experience.” states Roblox.

Why Roblox?

Inside Roblox’s virtual worlds, users are able to completely customize their avatars from clothing to hairstyles and accessories using digital items. This gives Roblox-users a more personalized experience, an important consideration when targeting the Gen Z audience.

In the past year, brands have started to realize that luxury is no longer the domain of the affluent, older consumer and with that came the understanding that producing digital clothing or accessories is a new necessity, and more so-an opportunity. Luxury brand Stella McCartney sold an entire collection of digital items through the platform, showing how lucrative this field can be.

“A big part of the learning curve for brands is really understanding that, if you are building your own dedicated world inside the platform, you need to think about longevity — you need to think about how we are building and continuing to invest in that world,” said Yonatan Raz-Fridman, CEO of the Roblox developer Supersocial. “Because if you just do it one time, one-off, you’re probably better off experimenting within an existing game world.”

The metaverse is opening access to a relevant customer base globally, essentially brands’ future consumer, all while allowing brands to try new ideas virtually before they taking it to the real world, and experimenting with Roblox has seen brilliant results for brands, so far.

Steps to building your own virtual world

Emperia simplifies omnichannel efforts and develops virtual stores which can be extended into the metaverse, making it a seamless experience for retailers to customize, brand and launch immersive retail experiences.

Is your brand ready to make the Roblox move?

Get in touch with our team today to start building your virtual store.

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