Walmart expands interactive media partnership with product videos
Walmart Inc. plans to greatly increase its use of interactive product videos.
The discount giant began collaborating with immersive video technology provider Eko in 2018 to offer the Walmart Toy Lab, which enables kids to virtually test holiday toy releases from their tablet or computer.
Since then, Walmart has teamed with Eko to offer shoppable interactive cooking videos and virtual tire fitting. In addition, during the pandemic the company teamed with family experience company Camp and Eko to introducing socially distanced Halloween-themed experiences with actor Neil Patrick Harris.
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During the last 18 months, the retailer says it has implemented Eko’s interactive product video technology and increased sales across a variety of high-consideration items in the electronics, home goods, toys, and baby products categories.
“It’s inspiring to see how our associates are leveraging Eko’s technology to make shopping with us more enjoyable and convenient,” said Doug McMillon, president and CEO, Walmart. “Around the world Walmart’s goal is simple: We’re focused on saving our customers and members both money and time. We will continue to leverage great tech to give them the best possible experience.”
Walmart and Eko are set to continue their partnership into 2025, during which it the retailer anticipates that it will release interactive videos for hundreds of thousands of products on Walmart.com and its mobile applications.
"When we first announced our partnership with Walmart, we were confident that interactive media would reshape e-commerce," said Yoni Bloch, CEO of Eko. "Now, after years of experimentation, iteration, and refinement, what we’ve long believed — that interactive video is the future — is happening now."
Walmart increases metaverse commerce efforts
For the past three years, Walmart has also been steadily growing its presence in the area of metaverse commerce, another immersive virtual shopping environment.
These efforts include a limited-time interactive gaming experience called "Skyward" on a Minecraft Java server, as well as an immersive in-game commerce experience called "Walmart Unlimited," in partnership with 3D gamified media platform Spatial and the Unity real-time 3D development environment.
The discount giant also integrated e-commerce into its existing collaboration with global social networking and avatar simulation app Zepeto.
The company also 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 and offered a back-to-college shopping experience in July 2024.
The retailer debuted in the metaverse by launching two new metaverse experiences on Roblox in September 2022 and announced in September 2023 that it would deepen its commercial activity in "virtual worlds," becoming the first entity to sell select physical items on Roblox.
