Why the metaverse didn’t become retail’s next big thing

Despite predictions it would be a game changer, the metaverse has so far proven to be a niche retail channel.

The advent of the metaverse as a major topic of digital commerce conversation can be traced to October 2021, when Facebook changed its corporate identity to Meta. This reflected the tech giant shifting its focus to the metaverse, a lifelike digital environment consumers use augmented and virtual reality technology to engage with each other and their surroundings, with crossovers into the physical world. 

[READ MORE: Editor’s commentary: What could the ‘Metaverse’ mean for retail?]

In commentary at the time, I said the metaverse could wind up like Google Plus, the failed social network attempt which Google shut down in 2019, or the Pokemon Go AR game, which also overlaps a virtual world into the “real” world and remains existent but far from the craze it caused when it was released in 2016. 

At this point, Pokemon Go seems to be an apt comparison. As recently as May 2025, I wrote a column mentioning the metaverse as a “consumer hotspot” – and I’m sorry. 

It has usefulness for targeted promotions, as evidenced by retailers as varied as Walmart, E.l.f. Cosmetics and J.Crew leveraging it for that purpose, but dreams of entire metaverse stores and malls seem to have fizzled.

Part of the reason is surely that metaverse visual headwear (which is not always required to interact with the metaverse environment), such as Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest (formerly Oculus), is bulky and expensive.

But hardware is not the major inhibitor to widespread adoption of metaverse commerce. Here are three more significant issues preventing the emergence of the metaverse as a major retail channel:

Generative AI

The emergence of generative AI as a mainstream retail channel in 2023 put a damper on metaverse commerce momentum. Generative AI enables retailers to quickly create all sorts of content, including images and videos, and can be embedded into more established augmented and virtual reality and virtual try-on solutions.

As an added bonus, generative AI enables the development of all this visual and interactive content at a low cost with little to no expert programming required, unlike the development of metaverse environments. And consumers also widely use generative AI technology in their personal lives, creating a built-in familiarity that the metaverse has never achieved.

Roblox

There are many similarities between the metaverse and Roblox, a virtual gaming site popular with Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers where users create 3-D avatars and engage with other players in a digital world. According to Roblox, as of the third quarter of 2025 it had 151.5 million daily active users.

Roblox is not as immersive as the metaverse, as users are still observing everything that happens to and around them via a device screen. However, Roblox users can play a wide variety of games where they can create avatars, build homes, and spend “Robux” (in-game virtual currency purchased with real money) to outfit and equip their characters with various items and furnish their virtual homes.

The platform has become a popular and successful digital commerce interface, with retailers including Walmart and Pacsun engaging in full-scale “real world” online retailing via Roblox. 

With Roblox already there as a third-party immersive environment retailers can plug into for access to an instant customer base, the development of other metaverse commerce touchpoints becomes much less important.

Connected stores

Finally, the growing popularity of connected store environments where shoppers engage in "phygital" retailing that blends the brick-and-mortar and digital customer experiences into a seamless omnichannel environment makes metaverse stores somewhat superfluous.

Many shoppers are using their smartphones in-store to look up product details, get reviews and "showroom" (instantly comparing prices to those of competing retailers). In addition, by using AR and VR interfaces, retailers can allow in-store customers to virtually try on items and interactively learn about the history of products, watch videos and gain access to exclusive deals. 

This provides a metaverse-type experience in a physical store. And guess what? Survey after survey indicates consumers, especially tech-savvy Gen Z shoppers, prefer shopping in a physical store. Throw in the best qualities of the metaverse and you eliminate the need to build a store there.