Amazon Now Lets You Buy Virtual Goods in the Virtual World. Can It Work For Food?
This week, Amazon announced a new platform called Amazon Anywhere that allows the discovery and purchase of virtual products within a virtual environment such as virtual and virtual reality and video games.
The platform, which the company showed in combination with the game of the augmented reality animal called Peridot (from the same company that makes Pokemon Go), allows customers to buy physical products without leaving the game environment. Gamers and VR testers can see product details, photos, availability, Amazon Prime eligibility, price, and estimated delivery date just like they would on Amazon’s website. They click on the “buy” button and check out using a linked Amazon account without leaving the game, and from there, the products will be shipped and can be tracked and managed through the Amazon app or website.
Today the purchase of the game and the virtual world is limited to digital goods such as money or digital characters, but the new Amazon platform opens a new and potentially exciting way for players to buy virtual products. The Peridot demo allows players to purchase merchandise such as t-shirts, hoodies, phone accessories, and throw pillows with game art on them, but what if solid or food-related food was sold within the physical space? Could emerging CPG brands, which often use early DTC strategies, see this as a potential new market channel?
While this idea is amazing, the biggest problem with Amazon’s platform is Amazon’s platform. Amazon is the most expensive place to buy food, and small emerging DTC brands often choose to sell on their website using white-label e-commerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce/WordPress, Magento, and Squarespace until they graduate to retail.
However, the purchase of physical products in the world may be attracted by multichannel CPGs. Amazon tried to sue the big CPG companies early on with its IoT-powered Dash buttons, but eventually abandoned the project in 2019 (although they still sell the Dash smart shelf). The company has also tried to get a return on its big investment in Alexa by selling everyday products, but the division’s recent problems show consumers, for the most part, still prefer to click buttons on a web page or app to complete a purchase.
Which brings us back to Amazon Everywhere. The use of virtual or augmented worlds will grow over time, meaning that Amazon’s first attempt at building a platform could pay big dividends in the long run. Brands can connect products with stories or characters in an experience not possible with more traditional advertising. By buying into the world, they will be able to transform in a completely new way.
While it’s too soon to tell if consumers will bite, I have no doubt that Amazon will try to find out. My guess is that we will see other players like Facebook and Microsoft follow Amazon’s lead and create a VR and video game shopping platform around the world for physical products, but for now, it looks like Amazon has them covered.
