Forever 21 Bets You Want to Dress Like Your Roblox Avatar

tech.hindustantimes.com:

There's no shortage of skepticism about the metaverse, but one legitimate business strategy could be using virtual worlds as a testing ground for physical products.

That's a hypothesis Forever 21 has been incubating since it set up a shop in Roblox a year ago. In the virtual world, the fast-fashion giant made a splash selling digital goods that users buy to outfit their avatars. A black beanie, a product it didn't offer in the real world, selling for about 70 cents is on track to be purchased 1.5 million times this year, making it one of the brand's top-performing items ever.

Forever 21 is now bringing that beanie and other digital-first items to its stores and website in what it has called the first clothing line tested in the metaverse.

“We love the idea of testing products digitally,” said Jacob Hawkins, whose roles at Forever 21 include chief marketing officer. “It costs us so much less to test a product digitally than to test it in stores.”

Brands and retailers spanning Gucci to Walmart have piled into the metaverse this year by creating experiences and selling digital goods, with many attempts tied to NFTs and crypto. But few of those bets have made real-world money, and the recent routs in tech and crypto have soured investors on Web3 — a catchall for the future of the internet.

However, Forever 21's latest push is a sign that virtual worlds have the potential to be more than glorified brand billboards by offering an inexpensive way to create and test products. A digital good can be produced cheaply and quickly by sidestepping the logistical hurdles that bedevil retailers. Forever 21's digital beanie cost less than $500 to make, according to Justin Hochberg, chief executive officer of Virtual Brand Group,