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Bloomingdale's VR Brand Strategy

Lacoste cuts the ribbon on virtual holiday store

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By Webb Wright, NY Reporter

November 29, 2022 | 4 min read

The virtual experience, which went live this morning, includes a VIP room for those who own Lacoste NFTs.

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Visitors looking to enter Lacoste’s new virtual store will reportedly enter ‘through a crocodile’s mouth’ / Emperia

Lacoste is tapping into hype surrounding the metaverse – and gearing up for the holiday shopping rush – with the launch of a virtual store, accesible via desktop and mobile.

The new campaign was designed in partnership with Emperia, a platform that designs virtual reality (VR) experiences for retail and fashion brands. According to a statement from Emperia, visitors to Lacoste’s new virtual store will be “taken through a crocodile’s mouth, where they find themselves in a showroom featuring five seasonal products, all shoppable [and] viewed in 360°.” A second room includes games centered around Christmas products from Lacoste.

The launch of the virtual store marks Lacoste’s latest effort to leverage emergent technologies in an effort both to position itself as a future-facing brand and to develop a stronger sense of community among its most loyal fans – two hallmark goals of most companies that are seeking to make a name for themselves in the burgeoning web3 space.

Back in June, the fashion brand unveiled its first-ever NFT drop, called UNDW3 – which, believe it or not, is supposed to be pronounced “Underwater.” The tokens featured a realistic-with-a-sci-fi-twist image of a crocodile, effectively the brand’s mascot, peering above a dark and calm pool of water.

Lacoste’s new virtual store includes a VIP room only accessible to UNDW3 token holders. Loot boxes will be released periodically into the VIP room throughout the month of December, and five token-holders will be selected at random on a daily basis to win special prizes, per Emperia.

“Lacoste is bridging the gap between holiday shopping and gamification with this unique virtual experience,” Olga Dogadkina, co-founder and chief executive of Emperia, said in a statement. “Having a presence in the metaverse during such a significant shopping season and utilizing NFTs in a practical way that creates a sense of community will take Lacoste to the next level, allowing it to leverage e-commerce and web3 innovation like never before, [while] positioning the brand as a fashion trailblazer.”

Lacoste isn’t the only brand that’s looking to gain a competitive edge this holiday season by setting up shop in virtual spaces. Earlier this month, department store chain Bloomingdale’s launched a virtual store – also accessible via desktop and mobile – in partnership with Chanel, Nespresso and Ralph Lauren.

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