[Courtesy of Lotte Department Store]
The metaverse allows users to engage in various activities without physical restrictions by offering virtually-created spaces. Users can experience the virtual world by creating their own avatars using a smartphone, PC, or a virtual reality (VR) headset. The virtual world technology can simultaneously connect multiple users at a time so that they can explore and interact with the new world and its inhabitants including other users. A digital clone is literally a virtual duplicate of the real-world original. Digital clones of stores, buildings and characters are recreated in metaverse environments.
Lotte Department Store said in a statement on November 18 that the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Vaiv Company to provide a metaverse environment where customers can purchase real-world products through virtual shops. The two companies plan to release the metaverse commerce platform in the first half of 2022. "The project is to preemptively materialize the next-generation department store that suits the metaverse era," Lotte Department Store CEO Hwang Beom-seok was quoted as saying.
The adoption of the metaverse has accelerated in various industries. The operator of South Korea's top convenience store chain CU is currently operating an online convenience store on ZEPETO, a popular smartphone metaverse app, to invite customers to a virtual clone of a CU store located in one of Seoul's riverside parks. Visitors to the metaverse store can shop and rest on benches to enjoy the famous night scenery of the Han River that flows through South Korea's capital city.
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