Virtual worlds, like Second Life, have carved a niche in the hobbyist world. In these worlds participants earn “Linden Dollars” by creating and selling clothes, furniture, cars, land, etc. to each other. All of this is very nice for those who share this hobby, but of little use to the rest of the world. However, there are some features of that world that make it interesting to those of us who specialize in more traditional eCommerce models. First, there is a floating, but fairly stable exchange rate between the Linden Dollar and the US Dollar. Second, there is no restriction on what type of commerce takes place in the virtual world. You could, for instance, sell music downloads there, collect money for the transaction in Linden dollars and exchange them for US Dollars. The question that arises is why would someone sell in that world when the tradition eCommerce sites already do a good job of selling many products. Several reasons come to mind. First: Browsing. Traditional eCommerce is essentially like going to the hardware store. You sign in, search for an item, pay for it and leave. In the brick and mortar world, you can do that too, or you can “hang out” in a store to see what’s new. Many stores like American Eagle and Target are laid out and merchandised to appeal to this type of shopping. (Their sales numbers speak for the appeal of this strategy.) Second: Not all products are easy to sell in a traditional eCommerce site. Furniture, clothing and office furnishings sell better when the user can “experience” the products, not just look at a picture of them. Perhaps the ability to configure a room, an office, or a mannequin in a 3D world would be superior because it allows a customer to “walk around” the choices and modify them until they get it right. Third: Youngsters. The rising generation of shoppers is not like us. They are a wired group who prefer texting to talking on the phone, and playing Internet video games against their friends to having them over to the house. Will 3D Commerce have more appeal to them than the current user experience once they become young adults?
