Web3 retail marketplaces

Ralph Lauren’s former digital chief will a new Web3 fashion platform called Syky in 2023. Alice Delahunt launched the blockchain-enabled marketplace to better connect digital fashion creators, modern fashion, and online consumers with digital, physical, and augmented reality technology. The marketplace aims to allow users to authenticate, trade, and sell digital fashion on the platform in the future.

In November, Nike launched .SWOOSH: a digital community and experience centered around virtual co-creation and interaction. The platform, currently in beta, is open to registrants and will launch its first digital collection in 2023. Once launched, members will be eligible to apply for an inter-community competition to co-create a virtual product with Nike and receive royalties from the product if chosen.

Woo, the gen Z wellness platform backed by ITV Studio 55, launched a marketplace for gen Z in November. The platform sells products ranging from homeware, tech, beauty, fashion and art to “shoppable services” such as breathwork guidance and classes to coincide with the platform’s broader wellness focus. This is a one-stop-shop “to dynamically showcase Woo’s breath of editorial content and videos without diminishing the skew of products on the site,” partner and creative director Daniel Baer said in a statement.

TikTok launched an e-commerce in-app feature in the US in November. Users can now make purchases on TikTok Shop while scrolling through their app feed this holiday season, an addition that was made available in the UK and Southeast Asia in late 2021 and early 2022. Live streamers, brands, and international merchants can sell through the shop.

Digital fashion house The Fabricant plans to launch a new project using visual storytelling and Web3 experiences to encourage consumers to express themselves with virtual fashion. The project, called Wholeland, will open registration in mid-November and will launch with a collection of digital NFT wearables and will enable users to co-create and monetize on their digital retail.

Open in Miami’s Wynwood district, Solana Spaces (not affiliated with Solana cryptocurrency) are physical storefronts that aim to connect and inform consumers with crypto-based retail. The physical concept stores are introducing and integrating digitally native brands with potential consumers who are less knowledgeable about experiential retail in the virtual realm, while also providing a physical space for crypto consumers to gather and engage in experiences as a community. Visitors can open a Phantom wallet, interact with blockchain-sellers, and collect NFTs as they learn and engage with tutorials throughout the gallery.

"[T]here are going to be a lot of NFT native communities breaking into the mainstream,” Solana Spaces founder Vibhu Norby stated in a Forbes feature. “We want to build a playbook for that to happen."