Meta unveils digital fashion store for avatars amidst metaverse push

Meta is allowing consumers to buy digital clothes to style their avatar by launching its Avatars Store on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, some of the brands that are included in the lineup of new looks include Balenciaga, Prada, and Thom Browne.

"Digital goods will be an important way to express yourself in the metaverse and a big driver of the creative economy. I'm excited to add more brands and bring this to VR soon too," he said in the post.

Citing Meta's spokesperson, Reuters said the designer outfits would be priced between US$2.99 and US$8.99, much less than the outfits in real life. According to Reuters, Prada's Matinee ostrich leather bag, for example, currently sells for US$10,700. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Meta for comment.

This move comes as Meta is doubling down on the metaverse. The company first indicated its commitment to the field by rebranding last October from Facebook to Meta. Zuckerberg said previously that the company will be metaverse-first, moving forward and not Facebook-first. It has also started using the ticker META.

Meta's chief also said during its first quarter 2022 earnings call that the company plans to launch a web version of its VR platform Horizon Worlds later this year that will make it easy for people to step into the Metaverse experiences from a lot more platforms, even without needing a headset.

Meta's other focus for Horizon Worlds is building out the metaverse economy and helping creators make a living, working in the metaverse. "We expect to be meaningfully better at monetisation than others in the space and we think that that should become a sustainable advantage for our platforms as they develop," he added.

The company will be charging creators around 47.5% on sales of digital assets and experiences made inside Horizon Worlds. A spokesperson previously told Reuters that this is comprised of 30% of hardware platform fee for sales made via its Meta Quest Store which sells apps and games meant for its virtual reality headsets. Another 17.5% cut will be from the Horizon platform fees. Meta is also testing commerce tools to sell digital assets within Horizon Worlds.

Meanwhile, the company recently rolled out a series of new metaverse initiatives in Hong Kong, enabling Hongkongers to better understand metaverse’s potential across industries. According to Meta, this reaffirms its commitment to bringing the metaverse to life, to help people to connect, find communities, and grow businesses through its platforms.

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