Walmart creates metaverse shop for college students, influencers

A Walmart Realm store (Image courtesy of Emperia and Walmart).

Walmart is expanding its “Walmart Realm” immersive shopping environment for back-to-college season.

The discount giant, which launched Walmart Realm, a 3-D virtual shopping environment curated by digital influencers and built upon the Emperia metaverse platform in partnership with Sawhorse Productions, in May 2024, is introducing “Your Dorm Your Way,” the second phase of the initiative.

[READ MORE: Walmart expands metaverse, influencer efforts with Walmart Realm]

Accessible on a dedicated website, Walmart Realm offers a selection of three 3-D animated shops, each with its own theme and with an assortment created by a different influencer or team of influencers.

Each shop offers a rotating 180-degree view and items customers can click on to obtain detailed views and add to their shopping cart. In a gamification element, visitors can also click on “sparks” (representations of the Walmart symbol) and collect them to win prizes. 

In an email to Chain Store Age, Emperia said that college students can now explore and shop five brand-new virtual, immersive dorm rooms inspired by social trends and curated by popular digital college creators including Trinity Aniyahh, Study Moofin, The Bee Kid, and Jellybean Celine. Virtual Your Dorm Your Way shopping environments include:

• Sanrio – a “fantastical cotton candy and rainbow escape.”
• Serene Retreat – a “cozy and comfortable soft living oasis.”
• Royal –“smart and eclectic with a preppy twist.”
• Y2K – featuring trends and products from the early 2000s
• LoFi –a gamer-themed environment inspired by neon lights and arcades.

Each dorm also includes a mini game, such as “Byte-sized Crush” in Y2K, as well as surprise features such as transporting inside a doll house in Royal, native social content from Walmart’s creators, and more.

“Walmart Realm, powered by Emperia, continues to embrace the limitless possibilities of virtual technologies, allowing us to create stunning immersive commerce experiences to inspire our customers and shorten the distance between inspiration & commerce as they shop online,” Justin Breton, director of brand experiences & strategic partnerships, Walmart, said in the email.