Marketing in the metaverse: Fiction or a new channel?

Marketing in the metaverse is a revolutionary concept combining digital marketing techniques with vast, immersive virtual worlds. Imagine a world where your brand can literally come to life, where customers do not merely view products but walk around virtual shops, touch digital objects and interact with other users in real time. This is no longer science fiction: it is a reality that pioneering brands are already using today to build unforgettable experiences for their customers.

In this article, you will discover:

• E-commerce in the metaverse and its economic potential

• SEO and SEM in the context of virtual worlds

• Practical marketing strategies for Polish companies

• Challenges and opportunities for marketing agencies

• The future of websites in the metaverse era

• The importance of copywriting in immersive environments

Is the metaverse the future of electronic commerce?

E-commerce in the metaverse is not just another technological trend, but a fundamental change in the way consumers experience online shopping. Global forecasts indicate that the value of the metaverse market in e-commerce could reach 1,151 billion dollars by 2034, with an annual growth rate of 37,39%. This means companies that ignore this trend today may fall behind their competitors tomorrow.

Immersive shopping experiences are the metaverse's key advantage over traditional e-commerce. Instead of browsing static product photographs, customers can virtually try on clothes, test furniture in their homes using AR, or even walk through virtual showrooms. Nike's Nikeland in Roblox has been visited by millions of users who not only bought virtual products but also built emotional connections with the brand.

Technologies such as VR and AR are revolutionising the way products are presented:

• Virtual fitting rooms allow clothes to be tried on without leaving home

• Augmented reality enables furniture to be visualised in real surroundings

• Interactive showrooms offer experiences that are impossible in physical shops

Effective SEO strategies must now account for optimisation for virtual environments, where traditional keywords give way to spatial interactions and immersive content. Polish companies that begin experimenting with these technologies now gain a competitive advantage in a rapidly developing market.

Research indicates that 78% of Polish consumers shop online, while the popularity of shopping abroad has risen by 6 percentage points. This shows that Polish consumers are open to new shopping technologies. The metaverse offers an opportunity to create global but personalised  shopping experiences that can compete with the largest international platforms.

A crucial ingredient for success is the integration of blockchain and NFT technologies, which ensure the authenticity of virtual products and create new business models. Smart contracts automate sales processes, while NFTs enable the creation of unique digital assets that can have value in both the virtual and real worlds.

How do brands use virtual worlds to build engagement?

Marketing in the metaverse is a revolutionary form of customer communication that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional advertising channels. Interactive marketing campaigns in virtual worlds generate levels of engagement that are impossible to achieve in conventional media. Research shows that brands operating in the metaverse record 60% higher interaction rates compared with traditional digital campaigns, translating into deeper relationships with consumers and greater brand loyalty.

Gucci's Town in Roblox is an excellent example of how global brands build immersive brand experiences. Users not only buy virtual Gucci products but also explore the brand's history, take part in mini-games and interact with other fans. This strategy turns passive consumers into active brand ambassadors who distribute content organically and extend the campaign's reach.

The main mechanisms for building engagement in the metaverse:

• Virtual events and product launches with global reach

• Gamification – a system of rewards and achievements that motivates interaction

• User communities – spaces for sharing experiences

• Personalised avatars – the ability to express one's identity

Professional marketing agencies increasingly offer specialist metaverse marketing services, combining traditional skills with modern immersive technologies. Copywriting for the metaverse requires a new approach: instead of static text, brands must create spatial narratives that develop as users explore the virtual world.

Budweiser's partnership with Zed Run shows how traditional brands can reinvent their experiences in a digital environment. NFT Budweiser Pass not only provides access to exclusive events but also creates a sense of belonging to an elite community. This strategy combines nostalgia (Clydesdales at horse races) with innovation (digital horses in virtual races).

Behavioural data collected in the metaverse is much richer than data from traditional digital channels. Brands can analyse not only what users click but where they walk, how long they spend in different areas and which objects they interact with. These deep insights enable hyper-personalised experiences that evolve in real time based on user behaviour.

AXE's Shonen Baby world is an example of how brands use storytelling across media. The campaign combined a virtual world with a social media presence, creating a coherent narrative that engaged different audience groups across multiple platforms simultaneously. Metaverse analytics allowed AXE to tailor future campaigns precisely to user preferences.

What are the technical challenges of marketing in the metaverse?

Metaverse marketing encounters significant technological barriers that can limit its adoption and effectiveness. The main challenge is the limited availability of VR and AR devices: although these technologies are developing rapidly, not every consumer yet has access to the necessary equipment. This creates a paradox: brands want to pioneer a new space but must also account for the limited reach of their campaigns.

Technical infrastructure is another challenge for brands planning to expand into the metaverse. Creating high-quality virtual environments requires substantial investment in advanced 3D technologies, real-time rendering systems and reliable servers capable of supporting thousands of simultaneous users. A lack of suitable infrastructure can lead to frustrating user experiences that negatively affect perceptions of the brand.

Key technical challenges in metaverse marketing:

• Interoperability – a lack of standards between different platforms

• Network latency – delays that affect the quality of immersive experiences

• Scalability – limitations in supporting large numbers of users

• Data security – protecting privacy in virtual environments

Website development must now account for integration with metaverse platforms, requiring developers to learn new frameworks and technologies. Responsive design takes on a new meaning: websites must work not only on different screens but also in VR environments where users navigate with gestures and 3D controllers.

Measuring ROI in the metaverse presents an enormous challenge for marketers. Traditional metrics such as CTR or conversion rate do not capture the full value of immersive experiences. Companies must develop new KPIs that account for time spent in virtual spaces, the depth of interaction or the level of social engagement. W3VE and other analytics platforms are developing specialist tools to measure the success of Web3 campaigns.

Compliance with GDPR in the context of the metaverse is particularly complicated. Virtual worlds collect far more personal data than traditional websites, from biometric movement patterns to detailed information about social behaviour. Brands must ensure transparency in data processing and give users full control over their personal information.

The problem of platform fragmentation means that brands must create different versions of their experiences for Roblox, Fortnite, Decentraland and other virtual worlds. Each platform has its own rules, technical limitations and user communities, complicating the creation of coherent marketing strategies. This requires agencies and marketing departments to develop deep expertise  in different metaverse ecosystems.

Are Polish companies ready for marketing in the metaverse?

The metaverse in Poland has enormous economic potential – according to expert forecasts, the Polish market could be worth between 5 and 10 billion euros by 2035, with growth of as much as 40% a year. This prospect prompted Poland's digital industry to establish a Metaverse Committee within the Cyfrowa Polska association, tasked with developing a national strategy for this technology. This shows that Polish companies not only recognise the metaverse's potential but are actively preparing to use it.

Research among Polish marketers reveals mixed attitudes towards the metaverse. While 90% of specialists know the term metaverse, a substantial proportion have not yet formed an opinion about the technology's practical applications. One third of marketers believe that brands' presence in the metaverse will become the norm in the coming years, indicating a growing understanding of this technology's importance for the future of marketing.

Polish companies' readiness for metaverse marketing:

• 24th place in the DESI ranking – Poland ranks 24th for digital development in the EU

• An above-average pace of development – Poland's digital transformation exceeds the EU average

• 6 million Poles have already taken part in the metaverse in its broadest sense

• 40% of marketers believe agencies are not prepared to provide support in the metaverse

Comprehensive branding strategies must now account for a brand's virtual identity and ways of expressing it in immersive environments. Polish companies already experimenting with AR and VR in their marketing campaigns have an advantage in preparing for a full-scale entry into the metaverse.

Banking infrastructure in Poland already uses advanced technologies that form a foundation for the metaverse's development. Polish banks are implementing interoperable authentication services and technologies such as blockchain, making integration with virtual economies based on cryptocurrencies and NFTs easier. This digital infrastructure will be crucial to the development of commerce in the metaverse.

The Metawersum Polskiej Kultury project is a pioneering initiative intended to familiarise society with immersive technologies. This virtual space, filled with Polish cultural heritage, could become a model for other industries, showing how the metaverse can serve not only commerce but also education and cultural promotion. For Polish brands, this means an opportunity to create authentic, locally rooted experiences in the global metaverse.

Challenges for Polish marketing agencies include the need to rapidly improve their expertise in immersive technologies. 46,6% of marketers seek knowledge at conferences, 43,2% in the trade press, demonstrating an active drive to acquire new skills. Professional agencies must invest in team training and partnerships with technology companies in order to offer clients comprehensive metaverse marketing services.

How can you measure campaign ROI in virtual worlds?

E-commerce in the metaverse requires a revolutionary approach to analytics and measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Traditional metrics such as impressions or click-through rate do not capture the full value of immersive experiences, where users spend time exploring, interacting socially and building relationships with the brand. New KPIs for the metaverse must account for the multidimensional nature of virtual experiences and their long-term impact on customer loyalty.

Advanced analytics platforms such as Dune Analytics allow activity in blockchain wallets to be tracked, enabling monitoring of purchases of NFTs, token exchanges and participation in DAOs. This data provides deep insights into how users interact with a brand in the Web3 space, going far beyond the superficial engagement metrics familiar from traditional social media.

Key ROI metrics in metaverse marketing:

• Dwell time – time spent in the brand's virtual spaces

• Social interactions – the number and quality of interactions between users

• Avatar engagement – the level of personalisation and use of branded items

• Cross-platform impact – the influence of metaverse campaigns on other channels

Professional SEM campaigns must now integrate with metaverse metrics, creating a holistic picture of the customer journey. Users may discover a brand in a virtual world and then make a purchase on a traditional website, requiring cross-platform attribution models to attribute conversions correctly.

Skyscanner's metaverse campaign is an excellent example of effective ROI measurement in virtual environments. The Travel Trends Departure Lounge campaign generated more than 400 press items in 11 countries, reaching 166 million people and 80,000 page views on its own content. These metrics show how virtual experiences can drive earned media and organic reach on an unprecedented scale.

Behavioural analytics in the metaverse provides much richer data than traditional digital platforms. Companies can track heat maps of movement in virtual spaces, analyse exploration patterns and identify the points of greatest engagement. These insights allow virtual shop layouts to be optimised and experiences to be personalised in real time.

Research shows that 70% of brands operating in the metaverse recorded increased audience engagement. Furthermore, metaverse campaigns generate 60% higher interaction rates compared with traditional digital channels. These statistics confirm that investment in metaverse marketing can deliver measurable and significant results, provided the right tools are used to measure and optimise campaigns.

What skills will the marketers of the future need?

Marketing in the metaverse is a revolutionary transformation that requires specialists to develop entirely new competencies extending far beyond traditional marketing skills. Interdisciplinary knowledge covering immersive technologies, 3D experience design, the psychology of virtual environments and digital economics is becoming the foundation for success in this new era of marketing. Future marketers must think like digital architects who design not just campaigns but entire virtual universes.

Storytelling in three dimensions is a key skill that must be mastered by copywriters working with the metaverse. Instead of linear narratives, copywriting for the metaverse requires branching stories that develop according to the exploration paths chosen by users. This means marketers must understand the principles of game design and environmental storytelling to create engaging narrative experiences.

Future competencies for metaverse marketers:

• 3D design thinking – designing spatial experiences

• Community management – building and moderating virtual communities

• Blockchain literacy – understanding NFTs, DeFi and tokenomics

• Cross-platform strategy – coordinating campaigns across different metaverses

Data analysis and modelling in the context of the metaverse require new frameworks for analytics. Marketers must learn to interpret behavioural heatmaps in 3D space, analyse social graph dynamics in virtual communities and understand economic flows in virtual economies based on blockchain.

Managing virtual communities is a competency that combines traditional community management with the moderation of 3D spaces. Marketers must understand group dynamics in virtual environments, where interactions are much more complex than in traditional social media. This includes managing conflicts in VR, events in the metaverse and cultural sensitivity in global virtual spaces.

GenZ marketing expertise is particularly valuable because this generation is the most open to adopting metaverse technologies. Marketers must understand young users' native behaviours in virtual spaces, their expectations regarding authenticity and preferences for virtual self-expression. Research shows that Generation Z expects immersive experiences and has a high tolerance level for new technologies, making them an ideal target audience.

Summary

Marketing in the metaverse is transforming traditional e-commerce by creating fully immersive, virtual shopping spaces that, according to forecasts, will by 2034 be worth around 1,15 trillion USD, with average annual growth of 37 %. Thanks to technologies such as VR, AR and NFTs , customers can virtually try on clothes, visualise furniture in their surroundings and take part in interactive showrooms, which significantly increases engagement and shopping satisfaction.

Global brands such as Nike, with its Nikeland space on Roblox, achieve interaction rates many times higher thanks to gamification and community events, while Gucci combines virtual product sales with the story of the brand's history in virtual Gucci’s Town, building user loyalty. In the metaverse, activities based on gamification, virtual launches and community management are crucial, turning passive audiences into active brand ambassadors.

However, fully realising the potential of metaverse marketing involves significant challenges: the high costs of creating advanced 3D environments, a lack of interoperable standards between platforms, limited access to VR/AR devices and complicated personal data protection issues, particularly in light of GDPR. Companies must also develop new success metrics that account for time spent in virtual spaces, depth of interaction or the number of users' social interactions, rather than relying exclusively on traditional KPIs such as CTR or conversion rate.

The Polish metaverse market is developing rapidly: the Cyfrowa Polska association has established a Metaverse Committee, while industry analyses predict that the market in Poland will be worth between 5 and 10 billion EUR by 2035, with annual growth of up to 40 %. Despite widespread awareness (90 % of marketers know the metaverse concept), as many as 40 % of agencies acknowledge a lack of sufficient expertise to run campaigns in virtual worlds, highlighting the need to invest in training and technological partnerships.

Looking ahead, the most important competencies for future marketers are designing 3D experiences (3D design thinking), transmedia storytelling, working with blockchain and NFTs, and managing communities in virtual environments. At the same time, analysing behavioural data is becoming more important in 3D, alongside technical SEO for spatial content and an ethical approach to user privacy.

Key Takeaways

What is marketing in the metaverse?

Marketing in the metaverse uses immersive, three-dimensional environments to create engaging consumer experiences in which customers explore virtual shops, try products in VR or AR and interact with the brand in real time.

What benefits does e-commerce in the metaverse offer?

Forecasts indicate that the value of the e-commerce market in the metaverse could exceed 1,15 trillion dollars by 2034, with annual growth of around 37%. Immersive shopping experiences increase customer engagement and allow globally personalised retail spaces to be created.

What main challenges do brands encounter?

The key barriers include limited access to VR/AR devices, a lack of interoperable standards between platforms, the high costs of creating advanced 3D environments and complicated personal data protection issues in the context of GDPR.

How ready are Polish companies for marketing in the metaverse?

Polish companies are preparing intensively to enter the metaverse: a Metaverse Committee has been established within the Cyfrowa Polska association, and the domestic market could reach a value of 5–10 billion euros by 2035, with annual growth of as much as 40%. At the same time, 40% of marketers believe agencies are not yet fully ready to support virtual campaigns.

How can you measure campaign ROI in virtual worlds?

In the metaverse, traditional KPIs such as CTR or conversion rate are insufficient. New metrics include time spent in brand spaces (dwell time), the quality of social interactions (social interactions) and the level of avatar personalisation (avatar engagement).

Which skills will be crucial for future marketers?

Future marketers must combine competencies in 3D design thinking, transmedia storytelling, blockchain literacy (NFTs, DeFi) and community management in virtual environments, while understanding the principles of spatial SEO and behavioural data analysis in 3D.