Walmart is Quietly Preparing a Push into the Metaverse

Not wanting to miss out on the multi-trillion-dollar metaverse market, US-based retail giant Walmart is pressing on with its plans to make and sell virtual goods.

The world’s second-largest retailer (recently outranked by Amazon) is planning to launch a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and create its own cryptocurrency.

New Trademark Applications Show Metaverse Intent

On December 30, Walmart filed several new trademarks that indicate its intent to build a virtual Walmart store within the metaverse and allow users to shop for electronics, home decorations, personal care items, toys, sporting goods, and a range of other products available in Walmart stores, offering its own virtual currency as a means of payment.

Walmart even has plans to offer a crypto wallet, described in its trademark application as: “Downloadable software for use in managing portfolios of digital currency, virtual currency, cryptocurrency, digital and blockchain assets, digitised assets, digital tokens, crypto tokens, and utility tokens; downloadable software for electronic wallet services; downloadable e-wallets.”

Shopping in Walmart in the Metaverse

Watch the video below to get a glimpse of what shopping in Walmart in the Metaverse might look like:

The buzz around the metaverse went ballistic after Facebook announced it was changing its company name to Meta last October. Since then, big businesses across different sectors have been amping up their own efforts for how they can adapt to exist in a virtual 3D world.

Nike entered the Metaverse after acquiring the virtual sneaker company RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”) and teaming up with Roblox to create an online world called Nikeland, following other big sports footwear names such as Adidas and Asics who had already launched their own NFT collections last year.

Many other big brands are also racing to stake their claim in the metaverse. Last week, Crypto News Australia reported that Samsung will open a virtual store hosted in Decentraland. The metaverse is becoming the future frontier for retailers and promises a whole new world of financial opportunities.