Taobao Launches ‘Metaverse Mall’ in Time for China’s 618 Shopping Festival

Taobao’s latest venture in the metaverse is a fully immersive virtual mall. What does this mean for the future of shopping? 

What happened: To prepare for the country’s annual 618 Shopping Festival, Alibaba’s Taobao has appointed the help of a specialist metaversal project team to create a fully-optimized virtual shopping venue open to its customers. Using their phones, shoppers will be able to guide their avatars through 3D stores and engage in a number of interactive activities. The project, according to the company, is a chance to undergo a technical exploration of the immersive shopping scenarios Web3 has to offer.

The Jing Take: The e-tailer joins several global names who are establishing opportunities in virtual e-commerce. Previously, the metaverse has seen fashion brands such as Italian luxury groups Hogan and Dolce & Gabbana and high-end retailer Selfridges utilize platforms like The Sandbox and Decentraland to host their limited-time stores. But this announcement takes China’s concept of Web3 real estate to the next level.

To date, Taobao hasn’t been shy when it comes to making its name known within the metaverse. From their VR Shopping Buy+ program to TaoBao Life’s virtual avatars, this fully-immersive metaverse mall is only its latest Web3 development. With this, one of Taobao’s primary focuses is to ensure that consumers’ three-dimensional shopping needs are met. This is being achieved without the need for external devices, such as VR headsets.  Continue to read the full article here Jing Daily