Walmart's electronic trading experience, currently embedded on the popular gaming platform Roblox, offers users a unique shopping experience that blends gaming with real life but rekindles concerns for parents and educators regarding marketing to children.
Walmart Land, the new world of Walmart within the Roblox platform, allows players to purchase real items that will be directly shipped to their homes, receiving virtual versions of those items for their avatars immediately. Users accessing the experience will encounter a new display window showcasing virtual copies of selected physical items sold in Walmart stores.
To enhance the electronic trading experience, Walmart has collaborated with three Roblox creators, Sarabxlla, MD17_RBLX, and Junozy, to design Roblox versions of three Walmart physical products, including a No Boundaries festival backpack, a TAL stainless steel cup, and Onn wireless headphones.
Every company and its interest
Roblox debuted its electronic trading experience during Roblox's Investor Day in November. Walmart's experience is a pilot test that will last until May. During the pilot, Roblox will not receive a portion of the item sales, and all proceeds will go directly to Walmart. Instead of serving as a new revenue stream for Roblox in the short term, the pilot will gauge users' willingness to purchase physical products on the platform.
This current pilot is the first among multiple tests Roblox plans in the e-commerce field, involving various products, brands, and different purchasing methods. When it comes to conclusions, the future electronic trading experience on the platform may look very different from Walmart's pilot.
"We are excited to begin exploring real-world commerce as a key step towards its future activation for our creator and brand community," said Roblox's CFO, Enrico D'Angelo. "The purchase of virtual items is already an important component of people's engagement with Roblox every day, so our goal is to collect feedback, test the technology, and learn from what resonates with Generation Z, especially regarding the purchase of physical items."
Walmart enters through the back door and receives criticism from parents
Walmart has already announced that payment is entirely secure, and its recommendation feed will only be available to users aged 13 and older, a seemingly young age by all standards and a number arbitrarily derived from platforms that have done so before, such as Facebook and Instagram, but holds no legal significance. Furthermore, it is unknown how Walmart plans to enforce the age restriction when so many children lie about their age online.
In the midst of this, Americans on Reddit complain and wonder how, after years of fighting against children's targeting for marketing purposes, this is what they get. Others anticipated the platform's total failure, arguing, "We don't need gimmicks to buy things"; another user sarcastically commented, "Sure, let's advertise physical products on the one game where all users are under the age of 10 except for a few creepy adults."
What do Generation Z think of Walmart's new world? This YouTuber, who tried a previous version of Walmart Land, wasn't impressed at all:
Roblox aims high
Similar to Roblox's evolution into an advertising network, which reached a high point last year, the company's expansion into electronic trading underscores its aspirations to surpass its origins as a gaming company and become a full-fledged digital platform. If all goes according to plan, the platform's leaders hope to navigate it much higher, akin to Facebook's evolution from a social platform to a hub for shopping, entertainment, and connections, or Amazon's expansion from selling books alone to games, streaming, and cloud services.
Setting up shop at major sports events
The opportunity for electronic commerce in Roblox extends beyond dedicated merchants like Walmart. The ability to sell physical goods through Roblox represents a concrete, attractive revenue stream for nearly every brand targeting young people. In essence, building a Roblox world is the virtual equivalent of setting up a merchandise booth at a music festival or sporting event.
Marcus Holmstrom, CEO of Roblox's Development Studio, which has developed many Roblox experiences for sports brands like FIFA and Wimbledon, said it's especially useful for sports brands and leagues. "FIFA, for example - at every World Cup, they have official stores. So if they move the official store into Roblox, it opens a global market."
From Walmart's perspective, the company seeks to expand its electronic trading presence on Roblox and dreams of becoming the default provider of trading experiences worldwide.