Shopify and Roblox unlock a new quest for innovative brands: real-world commerce capabilities on the ultra-popular gaming platform—coming in 2025. Blurring the lines between gaming and e-commerce, this new partnership enables brands on Shopify to sell physical items directly within their custom Roblox activation. While the ability to purchase real, physical items in an immersive (and/or gamified) experience is not new (peep virtual stores) this integration is a huge leap for commerce in the immersive media space.
In a world where consumer attention spans are ever-dwindling, gamified experiences reign supreme due to the heightened level of interactivity; brands build on gaming platforms such as Roblox to deepen consumer connections and build brand affinity. With 80 million daily active users and counting, Roblox brand collaborations are a natural tactic to build online communities and cultivate brand loyalty, especially amongst young, gaming-native generations. At 2.4 hours spent daily per user—more daily time spent than YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Netflix combined—brands are able to reach new and existing customers at scale.
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Brands can leverage Roblox’s deeply-rooted social and gaming elements to not only build community among the platform’s hyper-engaged user base, but also incentivize product discovery and encourage purchases with the launch of real-world commerce capabilities. Introducing Shopify checkout functionality into Roblox enables brands on the platform to blend entertainment and commerce.
With the Shopify integration, Roblox becomes an innovative shopping platform for cutting-edge brands to seamlessly sell physical and digital goods—diverging from traditional e-commerce interfaces into immersive 3D environments. Rather than developing Roblox activations as solely immersive brand marketing or loyalty experiences, brands will be able to adopt gaming as a way to expand their virtual online selling channels. This integration offers brands an opportunity to tap into the lucrative (and growing) gaming market with a clear ROI: driving revenue.
Without real-world commerce functionality, brands on Roblox are limited to selling digital products for user avatars called UGCs. These popular, digital items range from branded clothing, shoes and accessories to custom hairstyles and makeup looks, and empower user personalization. As players purchase and wear these items across brand worlds, it increases product visibility to the platform’s large, built-in user base.
By selling physical merchandise alongside digital goods, brands can drive revenue from both realms through their Roblox activations. This is especially significant as many Roblox users emphasize the importance of digital self-expression, and how it relates to their personal, physical style. In a survey conducted by Roblox of 1,500+ Gen Z members, 84% claim their physical style is inspired by their avatar—these respondents reported they were more likely to purchase from a brand in the physical world after trying on their items in a virtual space.
According to Roblox, 43% of Gen Z users on Roblox want to see brands create twinning items in the physical and digital worlds. This appetite for consumers to match their avatars will help inform brand strategy as the Shopify X Roblox partnership continues to be adopted; brands are likely to tie UGCs with physical goods so that shoppers are able to wear both in real life and virtually. Launching real-world commerce capabilities from Shopify makes this endeavor a seamless experience as players are able to purchase a physical copy along with the digital.
What The Shopify X Roblox Integration Means for the Future of Immersive Retail
As this integration unfolds, we can expect to see innovative retail strategies that redefine the future of commerce. For brands looking to expand their Roblox presence, the Shopify partnership will shift their metaverse strategy to include more shopping focused Roblox experiences: immersive product launch campaigns, virtual experiences for exclusive collectibles, virtual pop-up shops and more. And brands previously reluctant to develop an experience on the platform will be more open as the partnership yields a tangible ROI, with easy-to-digest KPIs.
As major players in their respective spaces, the Shopify X Roblox integration signals a rise in appetite for the immersive commerce market, bringing awareness to what’s possible even outside of the platform. Brands will eventually want to bring the gamification element inherent to Roblox back to their own websites. More control over the look and feel of brand worlds will entice brands to create their own immersive retail experiences such as virtual stores.
How Brands Can Capitalize on Immersive Commerce
Obsess is the leading immersive shopping platform, building shopping-focused experiences for brands on Roblox. Each Obsess-powered virtual store on Roblox encourages product sales, leveraging custom branded mini-games and tactical merchandising to promote physical and digital purchases. From layout to merchandising, each aspect of design is based on 3D spatial data from over 350 virtual stores. Brands can also extend ROI and distribute their Roblox virtual store across multiple channels and devices: web-based browser experiences, spatial computers like Apple Vision Pro and VR headsets like Meta Quest.
Whether you’re a brand looking to expand your reach or a player eager to explore new shopping experiences, this collaboration marks an exciting new chapter in the evolution of online commerce in 3D. To learn more about creating shopping-focused experiences on Roblox, book a demo or email [email protected].
