Over the past few years, this technology has soared in adoption, being quickly used by major brands—from H&M, Walmart, BMW, Gucci and even the EU government—to reach a new audience of tech-savvy consumers, especially Gen Z.

But it isn’t merely among art exhibitions and museums and concerts where it has been incredibly valuable.

Beyond brand events and immersive experiences, manufacturing companies are also using immersive web experiences, accompanied by Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to test and configure products using digital twins.

And especially among e-commerce brands, virtual worlds have become a new necessity: According to MIT Technology Review, the technology will “transform CX in the same way e-commerce shook up retail in the 1990s”.

We’ve recently partnered with beauty brand Clinique to launch an immersive virtual lab, seamlessly connecting their customers to the company in an immersive space with fully integrated immersive commerce (iCommerce).

Get market insights, trend reports, use cases and how-to steps in the iCommerce eBook

Do I have to change my current business model?

While you can, especially to adopt web3 transformation, you don’t have to change your current business model to implement immersive web applications..

It can offer a new avenue for revenue, integrating seamlessly into your existing model to boost sales, grow your brand awareness and connect with customers in a new way.

For example, if you’re an e-commerce store, your virtual world can be integrated with e-commerce and CRM solutions so that any time a user chooses to purchase through your virtual world, their browser basket updates.

In this case, using meta-tech simply offers a more immersive, social experience over browser shopping, giving customers an immersive online experience and potentially increasing sales.

How can I implement Metaverse Technology and Immersive Web Applications with my current business model?

How you choose to implement meta-tech depends both on your brand and business model. Here are some examples on how you could use an immersive web application to reach new heights:

• Fashion and Luxury: Virtual fashion shows enable you to show off your brand, your designs, and enable customers to explore your products in immersive spaces rather than through a two-dimensional screen. Read more

• Beauty and Cosmetics: Virtual beauty consultants and immersive, visual events can transform the traditional retail approach into something much more sensational for beauty fans. We recently joined forces with Clinique to create a virtual lab, showcasing top products while allowing customers to explore, shop, interact and learn all about the brand and its products. Read more

• E-commerce: If you’re operating an online marketplace, you can quickly create a virtual store through JourneeX in which customers can browse products, purchase items and interact with customer service representatives in a more immersive and engaging way. Read more

• Media and Entertainment: Whether you’re a movie studio or a music label, you can create your virtual world to host virtual concerts, digital film screenings and much more. Interactive auditory experiences, like virtual music sets, have been incredibly popular. Alongside BMW, we launched JOYTOPIA, an automotive and musical experience headlined by Coldplay performing in a virtual world. Read more

• Automotive: Those in the motor industry can use meta-tech for immersive virtual showrooms, allowing customers to interact with the car in a digital environment from the comfort of their own homes. These can be especially useful to reach a global market, boosting sales and reach. Read more

• Real Estate: Immersive technology allows real estate agents to offer virtual property tours, enabling potential buyers to explore spaces in detail remotely. This approach streamlines property viewing, especially for international clients, and can also be used for visualizing yet-to-be-built properties.

Of course, these are only a few examples—the immersive web offers near-endless opportunities for businesses.

If you’re looking to explore more, contact our experts or discover solutions for your industry.

What integrations could I use?

There are countless different integrations that you could implement into your immersive online experience to grow your engagement, improve your analytics and improve customer experiences.

Be that a virtual world integrated CRM, NFTs and blockchain, or customizable avatars, we offer varied and custom integrations tailored to help you reach your goals plus ready-to-use rich weblayers, all through our leading immersive web platform JourneeX.

How can I build an immersive experience?

JourneeX offers next-generation metaverse infrastructure and cloud streaming technologies for any immersive web application, enabling record-breaking online engagement and conversion rates. Our direct plug-and-play solutions—including text and proximity voice chat—allow your customers to connect with each other, or even talk to customer service representatives in a virtual space, freeing up queues and boosting customer satisfaction.

If you want to build your own immersive world, there are four things you should first consider:

• Objectives: Is it for a brand experience, a product launch, a conference, an iCommerce store, an internal training program or something else?

• Key Performance Indicators: These will make it easier to plan your project, intergate necessary tools and track its success.

• Creation: Here, you ideate and design the virtual space. Think about the space’s theme and how it fits in with both your wider brand and the world’s objective. Remember, the possibilities in the virtual are limitless.

• Access: It’s important to keep in mind whether the world will be public or private; whether it will have limited, or open access. These will be vital to secure a smooth launch and help you to plan your budget.

If you have these firmly set and an immersive web strategy in place, you’re ready to create your own immersive brand experience. Otherwise, you can also explore our 360 degree enblement options from strategy, concept, design to development.

Should I host it myself?

There are different kinds of immersive experiences (or 'metaverse')—owned and shared. With owned worlds, you are more in control of your brand touchpoints and the experience itself.

Shared experiences, however, are hosted by a 3rd party, where that third party integrates your brand into their virtual space to amplify it.

Each of these comes with different benefits, so whether you choose an owned or shared experience will depend on your needs, values, and how long you want the experience to last.

To help you decide, we’ve created a comparison article comparing the benefits and features of shared vs. owned worlds: read more.

Will I need an in-house team for my experience?

Whether you want an in-house team depends on your goals.

Having a professional team at your disposal for end-to-end support can help guarantee a seamless delivery of your project.

JourneeX is the leading platform and streaming technology for hosting, managing, producing, and maintaining branded immersive online experiences for enterprises and the creative industry.

If you have the long term plan and capacity in-house you can build your virtual worlds in-house using JourneeX. If you don’t have the team capacity for a full in-house team, outsourcing might suit you better.

Discover our award-winning use cases.

Summary

There are a plethora of ways that you can integrate meta-tech into your business model; from virtual runways to team meetings. What kind you choose—owned or shared—depends on your business’ needs, just like what integrations you’d like to implement.

Through JourneeX, we offer full cloud control, data analytics, asset management and more, enabling you to give your users an interacting experience for any possibility. Additionally, Journee offers a suite of cloud streaming technology to host, manage and maintain immersive spaces through our cutting edge platform, so whether you seek a competitive, strategic or visual advantage, we empower your business to leverage its full potential.