BoF Insights | The Opportunity in Digital Fashion and Avatars Report

Final week, Fb introduced its rebranding to Meta and dedicated billions of {dollars} to constructing the metaverse, an immersive future state of the web that may be a pure atmosphere for digital belongings like digital trend or avatars. Up to now two months, main trend and gaming corporations like Balenciaga and Fortnite and Vans and Roblox have introduced collaborations that span digital trend collections and bodily activations. And all through 2021, gross sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) dramatically rose to $10.7 billion within the third quarter from $1.3 billion within the second quarter.

Corporations around the globe are grappling with the existential implications of this evolution. Digital belongings have existed for years, however engagement now appears to be at an inflection level, particularly as NFTs — which show authenticity and possession and drive shortage — might improve the utility and worth of digital belongings.

Are we on the precipice of a brand new digital frontier? Or are we dealing with a frenzy of hype, amplified by time spent at dwelling in the course of the pandemic?

BoF Insights believes corporations in trend and retail can be well-advised to know the shifts going down, specifically in shopper behaviour and buy motivations. For an business sluggish to adapt to platform shifts like e-commerce, some trend corporations are already taking notice, with manufacturers from mass to luxurious experimenting with collaborations and activations and digital-first entrants quickly rising.

The Opportunity in Digital Fashion and Avatars is the second in-depth report printed by BoF Insights, a not too long ago launched information and evaluation suppose tank from The Business of Fashion arming enterprise leaders with proprietary and data-driven analysis to navigate the fast-changing world trend business.

The brand new report from BoF Insights reveals that:

• roughly 70 p.c of US normal customers (Gen-Z to Gen-X) charge their digital id as vital
• 65 p.c charge digital possession as vital
• 50 p.c are eager about buying a digital asset within the subsequent 12 months — whether or not a digital pores and skin or different merchandise in gaming, digital trend, digital avatar and/or an NFT.

Curiosity in buying a digital asset within the subsequent 12 months is even greater amongst US high-net-worth people, in accordance with BoF Insights analysis involving each a LuxuryOpinions® panel assembled by Altiant and a World Digital Style Panel drawn from the communities of DressX and The Fabricant:

Within the report, BoF Insights presents its perspective on the endurance of digital belongings, what customers imagine about digital id and possession, what motivates customers to buy completely different digital belongings, and the way corporations ought to interact over the brief, medium and long run.

Why this report is a must have:

• It presents a complete overview of digital belongings in trend — together with objects in gaming, trend, avatars and NFTs — which deepens the data of present or would-be business individuals.
• It identifies the underlying technological and social shifts driving curiosity in digital belongings whereas inspecting the sturdiness of those shifts.
• It analyses in-depth shopper insights that measure the familiarity with, perceptions of and behaviours related to digital belongings broadly and digital trend and avatars particularly.
• It supplies a playbook that outlines how manufacturers can tactically develop their digital asset methods, together with the place and easy methods to experiment inside these new environments.

The report is predicated on proprietary analysis inputs, together with:

30 interviews with founders, chief executives, different senior executives and buyers throughout the next domains:

• Gaming
• Digital-first manufacturers, retailers and marketplaces
• Bodily-first trend and luxurious corporations

4 proprietary surveys:

• Demographically balanced US Basic Shopper survey of Gen-Z to Gen-X, facilitated by Altiant on behalf of BoF
• Altiant LuxuryOpinions® panel of US high-net-worth people (every with a minimal of $1 million in investable belongings) performed on behalf of BoF
• World Digital Style panel fielded by BoF throughout the communities of DressX and The Fabricant
• Senior govt survey of BoF’s world neighborhood of trend professionals

Corporations and collaborations coated within the report embrace Altava, The Aura Blockchain Consortium, Auroboros, Balenciaga, Betaworks Ventures, Boson Protocol, Burberry, Digitalax, The Dematerialised, DressX, Epic Video games (Fortnite), The Fabricant, Genies, Gucci, The Lots of, Unbelievable, Louis Vuitton, Legendary Video games (Blankos Block Social gathering), OpenSea, Palm NFT Studio, Poplar Studio, Ralph Lauren, Retail Prophet, Riot Video games (League of Legends), RTFKT, Roblox, Straiqr.ai, Substance, Truesy, Vans and Wanna.

For enquiries and/or help, please e mail insights@businessoffashion.com.

Associated Articles:

The Metaverse Will Radically Change Retail

Unpacking Fashion’s Latest Wave of NFT Sales

The Limits of Virtual Fashion