Lowe enhances the metaverse with a tool to help visualize projects

It seems like every industry is entering the metaverse these days. Lowe doesn’t want to give up time to use to help builders think about projects.

But unlike other stores that have opted for a virtual platform or game like Fortnite or Roblox, Lowe’s metaverse properties – with free downloads of 500 product properties, including seats – located in its own hub.

“Everything is coming out, and it’s all for research,” Lowe’s executive president and general manager and sales manager Marisa Thalberg told CNBC in an interview. The customer decided not to choose a metaverse site but “an agnostic and democratized one,” he says.

While there are other ways to make money in the metaverse, even in an experimental way, Thalberg says “this isn’t about jumping in quickly and trying to create an event or buy. soon. ”

But, he told CNBC, “our goal is to take this new frontier and help people use their minds and help them make their virtual spaces as exciting and exciting as possible. with energy and fun like their real worlds. And that’s the only happiness we’re looking for right now. “

That is the only blessing spoken of. As the first home improvement store to enter the metaverse and offer its real estate products for free, there is no doubt that the main goal is to focus on the types of customers that will maximize potential in the future. ana. The assets are based on the actual products the company sells online and in its stores.

Analysts see a great deal of progress to come for the metaverse. By 2026, a quarter of consumers will spend about an hour per day in the metaverse, according to consulting and research firm Gartner. Morgan Stanley estimates the size of the addressable market for advertising and e-commerce opportunities could be worth $ 8.3 trillion in the metaverse, with $ 697 billion in home and home-based investments. The firm plans to go through “home improvement plans” as an example.

“Last year, it was estimated that about $ 100 billion was spent on virtual assets in stadiums.

Metaverse subscribers, in some cases, were previously paid thousands of dollars for independent non-fungible brands to retailers and fashion brands such as Gucci, Balenciaga, Dolce & Gabbana and Ralph Lauren. Gucci saw 19 million visitors to its Gucci garden at Roblox. Dolce & Gabbana sold an NFT item called “The Glass Suit,” with a bodysuit, for $ 1 million.

For its part, Lowe’s released a free NFT collection of shoes, hardhats and other accessories for builders on the Decentraland platform in the first 1,000 years.

Seemantini Godbole, Lowe’s executive president and chief information officer, told CNBC in an independent interview that the retailer uses many of the same resources currently used for customers for this project. metaverse.

“What we see in our products now like Lowes.com and our stores … people want to experiment and while they’re selling and being motivated they want to connect things to the virtual world before they start their project, ”he says. “That’s the same idea for the metaverse. You want them to experiment, think and understand what it looks like before they start the project in the real world.”

Godbole said many of these metaverse assets are created as 3D images of physical products available for sale, to help online shoppers see what real life is all about and features. Lowe’s uses virtual and augmented reality technology to allow customers to design an entire kitchen online or on the floor of their home using their phone as a custom. for example.

“There’s a lot of demand from our customers to use the new technology” according to VR and AR developers Godbole. “We’re using some of those studies in the metaverse.”

Currently, Lowe’s doesn’t offer physical fitness by purchasing a virtual space, or any link to its site from metaverse levels, Godbole said. But that can change.

“In the future, we can really think, how these different things relate, and prove that [metaverse users] You can buy these at Lowe’s dot com or our store, ”he said.

Thalberg noted that the average metaverse participant is really young, perhaps more so than the average Lowe’s customer or homeowner today.

“But if you look at the kids who have used platforms like Minecraft and Roblox, there’s a lot they have to do there, it’s really interesting, constructive and creative. What these places look like. , “he said. “And so if we catch them young, that’s fine, but we’re seeing a real benefit, even though we’re seeing a huge wave of millennial new homeowners who aren’t afraid of technology.”