The US retailing giant has expanded its plans build community outreach and promote its brand
Walmart, one of the world’s biggest retail firms, has filed additional metaverse trademarks to promote digital assets across its products and services.
In a tweet from Trademark Lawyer Mike Kondoudis, Walmart’s recent trademarks will push its Sam’s Club brand and logo.
According to the post, it aims to promote Sam’s Club via non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain, and cryptocurrencies. Customers will also have access to virtual reality (VR) healthcare and crypto trading, brokerage, and financial services, among others.
In the tweet, the filing will create a “provision of an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of downloadable digital goods authenticated by non-fungible tokens, blockchain-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and NFT [collectable] series for digital media.”
The document also shows the potential creation of a metaverse platform complete with a digital currency, native token, and online community.
Walmart Be Your Own Model AR App
The development comes after the enterprise launched its augmented reality (AR) smartphone service, allowing shoppers to try on virtual clothing.
Walmart’s Be Your Own Model app creates real-time 3D (RT3D) digital assets to allow customers to try on clothing before going to the store. This significantly reduces turnover due to product returns and boosts buyer confidence.
Demand for such innovations came amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered access to stores and forced enterprises to buy and sell online. Walmart developed a subdivision to create Web3 solutions and digital twin technologies to replicate over 270,000 physical products.
Home Is Where the HoloLives
The company also announced in June last year it had updated its customer shopping app. Using AR tools, customers can trial furniture and home decorations in physical environments.
Walmart’s iOS app will provide access to 300 3D digital assets and will host additional ones over the next few months. The app’s View in Your Space feature will superimpose item digital twins in customer spaces, with options to resize items and trial virtual goods in users’ homes.
Additional features include in-app haptic force feedback to enhance manoeuvring, gesture controls for accessibility, and voice command guidance for people with low vision.
Initial Metaverse Trademarks
The retail giant also revealed in January that it had filed for initial metaverse trademarks for extended reality (XR) retail experiences to back cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and digital content.
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) received Walmart’s filings in December 2021. The documents outlined methods to deliver virtual items, including home decor and sporting goods.
At the time, the filings revealed plans to create “downloadable software” to facilitate “digital currency, cryptocurrency, digital and blockchain assets, digitised assets.”
The initial filing also confirmed its measures to facilitate “members on an online community via a global computer service.”
A Walmart representative told the media at the time that “some ideas [will] become products or services that make it to customers. And some we test, iterate and learn from.”
Bazaarvoice Study on Digital Asset and Retail
The initiatives come amid a report released in July showing a rise in demand for immersive technologies, NFTs, gamified platforms, and other digital assets.
The Bazaarvoice survey indicated that 98 percent of respondents said they would shop at stores and retailers based on customer experiences
British residents topped the charts for excitement in live shopping, VR, the Metaverse, and AR technologies. Many stated they would like to see more immersive products in stores.
Despite this, just 36 percent of Brits stated they did not understand how to apply the Metaverse to real-life use cases. 31 percent said people would use the Metaverse regularly in 3 to 5 years.
Surveyors also noted that NFTs had huge potential for shoppers, despite just nearly one-half revealing they were familiar with the technologies.
Web3 and the XR Customer Experience
Web3 technologies have increasingly become a focus of retailers as many businesses search for novel approaches to marketing and engagement.
Sportswear retail giant NIKE also launched its SWOOSH Web3 platform for distributing NFTs, community outreach, and blockchain technologies. The new storefront also complements the firm’s NIKELAND metaverse platform, where visitors can win prizes, earn NFTs, and compete against others.
Additional firms such as Under Armour, GUCCI, IKEA, Wendy’s, Hermes, and many others have also leveraged Web3 technologies to engage with customers and fans.
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