Premium lifestyle brand Tommy Hilfiger today launched a cross-metaverse virtual hub in partnership with 3D technology and virtual reality (VR) platform provider Emperia. As part of the launch, the retailer is simultaneously unveiling several virtual experiences across various platforms, including Decentraland, Roblox, Spatial, DressX and Ready Player Me. 

To simplify the process of navigating among these virtual worlds, the Emperia platform will provide a central hub to easily move in and out of each experience.

The Tommy Hilfiger metaverse hub will be available online starting today.

Because today’s metaverse distribution requires placement on multiple non-integrating platforms, companies face special challenges in assuring consistent branding. Emperia’s interoperable approach, as in its collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger, bridges the gap and enables multi-world experiences to be integrated into brands’ Web3 and ecommerce strategies.

Emperia’s gateway connects fragmented environments, providing users with a seamless experience that enables them to enjoy each platform’s unique capabilities without having to choose among them. As a result, the hub creates a new, unique brand experience said to exceed physical retail alternatives. 

Streaming a cross-metaverse with style

The Emperia-created hub features DressX-powered digital fashion, Web3 artist collaborations with Vinnie Hagar, AR features, a photo booth, gamification and a community-focused competition to create AI fashion. Tommy Hilfiger’s well-known “TH” monogram will appear across all platforms, creating a unified digital brand story, while providing movement between the retailer’s website and the various metaverses, delivering an end-to-end shopping journey with a unique impact.

Emperia’s rendering capabilities standardize graphic quality across platforms, creating an easily accessible and high-performance experience without requiring users to download any special software. The experience is available on almost any device.

Some metaverse platforms limit payment options to cryptocurrency. By integrating with the retailer’s ecommerce platform, Emperia provides users with a wider range of payment options, reducing friction and increasing user confidence, resulting in higher online sales.

Overall, with the cross-metaverses hub, Emperia aims to introduce a new layer of interoperability, blurring the frontiers of Web3, and enabling connections between the metaverse, ecommerce, entertainment and direct performance, all backed by data. Meanwhile, Emperia’s dataset capabilities allow granular insights into the user journey and engagement across different metaverse experiences, enabling a cross-data approach that was never offered before.

Emperia and Tommy Hilfiger: Dressed for iconic success

The Tommy Hilfiger digital hub also aims to improve the product experience by offering four exclusive items, with the iconic Varsity Jacket taking the lead, presented in various aesthetic representations across all platforms.

Customers can purchase the jacket in two forms: physical, connected to Tommy’s ecommerce platform, and digital, connected to the DressX digital fashion platform. The Emperia hub provides access to the physical jacket for sale, while the Ready Player Me platform offers the digital version, which can be used across various games and environments, increasing the interoperability options.

“Emperia is continuing to change the face of virtual retail, pushing the envelope and supporting retailers along their ecommerce transition journey,” said Olga Dogadkina, co-founder and CEO of Emperia. She highlighted the industry’s movement towards collaboration, with each technology vendor leveraging its unique capabilities and traits under Emperia’s virtual environments.

The collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger and the PVH group is an example of this, creating a brand-new digital retail environment that enhances user experience and encourages brand engagement and shopper loyalty by consolidating the fragmented industry into a streamlined experience.

The ultimate goal is to increase ecommerce performance by centralizing the payment process and allowing users to freely navigate across the retailer’s online properties.