Ralph Lauren CEO: Metaverse Is Key To Winning Younger Shoppers

Ralph Lauren is exploring new opportunities in the metaverse as a way to appeal to younger shoppers, the company’s CEO Patrice Louvet said at the National Retail Federation’s annual conference.

The retail brand already offers customers the option to buy digital apparel and virtually visit and enjoy a coffee at its Madison Avenue stores. As a next step in the metaverse, the retailer is now exploring real estate opportunities in the digital world.

“One of our strategies is to win over a new generation and the new generation is there. So we have to be there,” Louvet said.

“There are a lot of parallels actually between the metaverse and Ralph’s vision because we are not a fashion company. We are in the dreams business.”

The company is partnering with metaverse platform Zepeto and gaming platform Roblox to allow buyers to dress their avatars in Ralph Lauren apparel — a strategy that is seemingly paying off. In just a few weeks of partnering with Zepeto, the company has reportedly sold more than 100,000 units.

While the company has yet to offer any non-fungible tokens ( NFTs), Louvet noted that the company is exploring how it can best leverage NFTs to boost its brand.

“We are learning,” he said. “We are experimenting. I do think that we are going to see consumers continue to be attracted to these spaces as they expand.”

Ralph Lauren is far from the only brand that is betting on the metaverse. Last month, Nike acquired sneaker NFT site RTFKT. And more recently, Gap became one of the major retailers in the U.S. to enter the NFT business.

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Originally published at https://retailbum.com on January 19, 2022.