Dive Brief:
- Expanding its Walmart Realm experience with Emperia, Walmart has added four new virtual shops for the holidays, inspired by Pinterest and TikTok trends, according to details emailed to Retail Dive.
- Each virtual room has a theme, including mountain chalet, holiday party, the white elephant game and “the sweetest gifts.” The retail giant tapped influencers to curate the gift ideas within each virtual space, per the announcement.
- The virtual spaces feature more AR-enabled items, allowing shoppers to preview products in their own space. The retailer also debuted a Wish List feature that lets shoppers create and share wish lists with their loved ones, and improved product discovery, according to the announcement.
Dive Insight:
With its newest Emperia collaboration, Walmart is returning to its immersive shopping and influencer strategy for the holiday season.
Earlier this year, the retail behemoth launched Walmart Realm with three different environments curated by online content creators. This summer, Walmart introduced Your Dorm Your Way on Walmart Realm, a back-to-school-themed virtual shopping environment.
Walmart Realm is intended to be a social atmosphere that allows users to engage in discussions and make purchases related to a specific topic.
“The social nature of this approach allows for digital creators an almost complete freedom in expressing themselves, while providing Walmart the opportunity to enjoy the viral effect of such experiences,” Emperia said in an email.
Beyond its collaboration with Walmart, Emperia has helped other brands and retailers create customized virtual shopping experiences in recent years. In 2022, Bloomingdale’s sought Emperia’s help with creating a multibrand virtual store featuring Ralph Lauren, Nespresso and Chanel. The beauty brand L’Occitane en Provence returned to Emperia to help create a Ramadan-themed store earlier this year. Similarly, Hugo Boss turned to the company to build a virtual villa dubbed the Boss House Bali, where shoppers could buy menswear, womenswear, fragrances, shoes and accessories.
Emperia competitor Obsess has also collaborated with a variety of retailers. Last year, J. Crew partnered with Obsess to open a virtual store in June and debuted a holiday version of its store last November. Just in time for this year’s holiday season, Benefit Cosmetics also teamed up with Obsess earlier this month to create a grocery store-inspired virtual store showcasing its holiday and best-selling items.
