CSA Exclusive: Metaverse insight from pioneer Neha Singh, CEO, Obsess

For Neha Singh, founder and CEO of augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) shopping platform Obsess, the metaverse is not a new concept.

Chain Store Age recently spoke with Singh, who was honored as a Startup Innovator in the 2021 Chain Store Age Top Women in Retail Tech awards, about her views of and experiences in metaverse retailing. In the metaverse, consumers use augmented and virtual reality technology to digitally engage with each other and their surroundings, with crossovers into the physical world.

“The next generation of the web is 3D,” stated Singh. In 2019, she launched Obsess as an online shopping destination that functions like a virtual mall. Each virtual store features photorealistic images of products created using CGI (computer-generated imagery). The Obsess website is built with proprietary technology that uses web-based virtual reality (VR) to make 3D 360 shopping experiences available on mobile devices, and the company also supports AR/VR commerce initiatives of companies such as Charlotte Tilbury.

[Read more: America’s newest ‘mall’ is located in cyberspace]

“The e-commerce interface hasn’t really changed,” explained Singh. “It needs to evolve – e-commerce still looks like late 1990s. All the sites are basically the same in how they arrange brand, product, category, attribute, and presentation. With a physical store, you get a different feeling in every store.”

Singh initially got the idea for Obsess while heading up product and engineering for an online marketplace startup. She ran into the issue of the uniformity of the e-commerce experience when she was tasked with building a website that would create different experiences for different platforms.

The templates were all the same,” said Singh. “No matter what e-commerce template you used, it had the same basic standard interface which you had to customize on your own.

After trying an early pre-release version of the Oculus VR headset, Singh had an epiphany.

“I said, ‘this is how customers shop,’” said Singh. “But they don’t always have time to go to the store. It was clear to me that it mattered for a brand’s digital shopping experience to be unique.”

Singh began working on what would eventually become the Obsess platform after leaving a position as head of product for Vogue in 2016.

“For the first couple of years, I built headsets,” recalled Singh. “Five years ago was too early for the Web-based VR platforms we see today. Now we have fast network speeds, rich graphics, and mobile support for much richer processing.”

Using third-party metaverse platforms
In addition to custom-building their own metaverse platforms, retailers have the option of launching digital commerce operations in an existing environment. Popular virtual gaming platforms, such as Roblox and Fortnite, are starting to see retailers open digital stores. Singh has advice for retailers considering this approach.

[Read more: E-commerce is not a game – but games can become e-commerce]

“I’d advise to do more than a two-day pop-up,” said Singh. “People are on metaverse sites more than social media sites. Roblox has 45 million daily users, averaging 2.5 hours of use per day. It’s important to have a presence.”

Although Singh said retailers cannot sell physical goods on virtual gaming platforms, they still serve as valuable brand awareness tools and can still produce sales.

“Virtual goods fashion represents a massive revenue stream,” she said. “One in five Roblox users changes at least one virtual accessory every day. It’s unclear if categories like beauty and home will convert to virtual sales in the same way.”

The year ahead in metaverse
Singh sees the recent uptick in metaverse commerce activity as part of a general acceleration in e-commerce growth spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Brands need to upgrade their e-commerce experience,” she stated. “Also, since the 2020-2021 period, gaming accelerated 90%. The metaverse provides a huge opportunity to be in front of Gen Z. Retailers are realizing the mainstream metaverse is not far off – permanent changes in consumer behavior will require a permanent presence.

Singh expects 2022 to be a year of “learning and experimenting” as retailers launch experiments and enter the early phases of their metaverse commerce programs.

“Nike has a chief metaverse officer,” she said. Metaverse sits in the middle of different corporate teams and can be difficult to budget. You can get the first set of experiences and evaluate. Remember that consumers want a fun, intuitive experience. Just be the Internet - don’t say cyberspace.”