As part of their ongoing mission to help clients stay ahead of the competition in a fast-paced, constantly evolving marketplace, Mars UnitedSM Commerce’s Customer Development team closely monitors the strategic activity taking place across all key retailers and channels.
Each month, the teams compile Marketplace Assessment reports on the retailers (including Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Kroger) and channels (such as Regional Grocery, C-Store, Club, Pet, Beauty, and On-Demand Delivery) that are most important to the business success of our clients. The following report outlines noteworthy events across four key retailers from the team’s most recent round of assessments. (To receive copies of the full reports, contact EVP-Customer Development Kandi Arrington at [email protected].)
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Amazon Hosts Virtual Holiday Shop
Amazon launched an immersive 3D Virtual Holiday Shop to showcase interactive content and popular gifts across multiple categories, helping shoppers discover new products and find inspiration in one convenient space. Visitors to the shop are treated to a festive experience with cheerful music and animation that lets them view products in several high-level categories such as kitchen, beauty, technology, and toys. All products can be added directly to the cart from the page.
Relevance: The Virtual Holiday Shop brings some of the treasure hunt aspects of holiday shopping to ecommerce for shoppers who need unique gift ideas. With the selection far more limited than at the physical store shelf, the items chosen by Amazon should enjoy a jolly lift in sales.
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Sam’s Club Gets Immersive, Too
Meanwhile, Sam’s Club partnered with immersive virtual shopping platform Obsess to stage its own immersive holiday shopping experience. Instead of a store interior like Amazon’s, the retailer invites members to traipse through a wintry scene to visit various storefronts carrying titles like “Decor Inn,” “Gift Shop,” and “Grocery” to identify the shoppable category. The experience naturally has full ecommerce functionality, enabling shoppers to add products directly to the cart. In addition to the shoppable product displays, the platform features an interactive “Holiday Hunt” game and a gift recommendation quiz.
Relevance: Immersive virtual environments add excitement to the standard ecommerce shopping experience, which while convenient tends to be more functional than inspiring. The quiz gives Sam’s Club members additional help in finding the right gifts on top of viewing numerous popular products within a single setting.
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Walmart Extends its Realm
In the latest expansion to the Walmart Realm experience, the retailer added four virtual holiday shops inspired by trends from Pinterest and TikTok. The AR-enabled environments let shoppers preview how products would look in the space they’re in. Visitors can also utilize a Wish List feature to create and share gift ideas with friends and family.
Walmart launched Realm last May in a bid to attract younger shoppers (Generations Z and Alpha) by creating a social media-style experience and shortening the distance between inspiration and purchase. It is housed on a dedicated website that Walmart hails as the “next generation of immersive shopping” and an innovation that’s “reshaping the retail landscape.”
The four new “rooms” include:
- White Elephant Wonderland, for fun, affordable gifts from brands including Keurig, Milani, and UNO.
- Mountain Chalet, for home decor from brands such as Roku, Better Homes & Gardens, and Rugs.com.
- Hosting Holiday, for gifts and decor featuring products from Ninja, Holiday Time, and Ten Acre.
- Sweet Gifts, which is primarily focused on tech products from brands such as Meta Quest, Nintendo, and Fujifilm.
Due to the successful experience it built for back-to-school season, Walmart kept a section for doom room decor live for students who’ll be heading back to class in January 2025. The experience makes design inspiration come easy through influencer-curated themes such as Y2K, LoFi, and Serene Retreat showcasing products from brands like Bose, JBL, and Walmart’s private labels.
Relevance: The social aspects of Walmart Realm allow shoppers to easily gain feedback from friends or other users. And by continuing to showcase dorm room must-haves along with top holiday gifts and decor, Walmart is tapping into multiple aspects of the current sales season.
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Kroger to Pilot Asian Experience Stores
To better serve a recent population boost in North Texas, Kroger will pilot “Asian Experience” stores in 2025 that feature a product assortment catered to Asian cooking. The retailer plans to convert two current Kroger stores to present a larger selection of Asian-centric and multicultural products, accompanied by a corresponding sign package.
The initiative follows closely on the heels of a “Hispanic Experience” concept store that launched at the end of 2023 in conjunction with the rollout of Mercado, a Hispanic cuisine-focused food and beverage private label.
Relevance: Speciality stores like these could become more common as pockets of unique cultures grow in certain areas of the U.S. Kroger has identified these as potential gaps worth exploring to simplify the shopping journey for consumers who might otherwise need to visit multiple stores to meet their needs. But it could also attract other shoppers interested in expanding their culinary capabilities.
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Opportunities for Brands
These virtual experiences highlight the importance of bridging the gap between ecommerce and brick-and-mortar shopping trips — as well as finding ways to attract younger consumers. As retailers continue to refine their use of technology solutions by tailoring them to seasonal events, brands should connect with their partners to find opportunities to be included. (For recommendations on how to identify these solutions and foster stronger relationships, read the Mars United report, Elevating Your Retailer Relationships.)
In addition to keeping track of tech innovations, brands should stay on top of regional retailing initiatives like Kroger’s Asian Experience stores. This format helps retailers become a one-stop shop for unique shoppers by meeting all their needs. Even if your brand’s products aren’t necessarily intended for these specific demographics, there might be ways to encourage product discovery through promotions, brand partnerships, or multi-lingual shelf talkers.
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Mars United Commerce’s Customer Development practice is an unrivaled team of in-market commerce experts who simplify the complexity of retail for our clients. Located in Bentonville, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Tampa and the “backyards” of other key retailers, they provide deep knowledge of the retailer, expertise in key business areas (like strategy, media and creative), and door-opening personal relationships with key executives to deliver an unmatched level of business success for clients across accounts, channels, and shopper engagement platforms. For more information, contact EVP-Customer Development Kandi Arrington at [email protected].
