The Metaverse will continue to open up new frontiers of opportunity in 2023. It’s no longer sci-fi, but top venture capitalists such as Verizon Ventures have invested in it, with hundreds of brands already in operation and more likely to follow.

As metaverse market is projected to grow to over $426 billion by 2027, and Meta recently announced it was doubling its investment in the Metaverse. More organizations are looking at how to build improved multichannel e-commerce experiences that better capture opportunities in immersive virtual environments. world.

For payments companies, the potential of the Metaverse is still on the rise. Embedded finance, open banking and banking as a service can all benefit from the metaverse. This also means the competition will be tougher than ever. By experimenting with what consumers respond well to, businesses can beat the competition by creating new products, services, and channels in the metaverse.

As more companies enter the metaverse, here are three observations payment players, merchants, and fintechs should consider when designing platforms that optimize revenue and improve customer experience.

Build a strong platform to earn customer trust and win adoption

Before an enterprise can dive into the metaverse, it must overcome certain infrastructure challenges. Business leaders need to understand the plugins and APIs their organization needs to support for a frictionless consumer experience.

Infrastructure investments are necessary not only to ensure a smooth consumer experience, but also to instill checks and balances and avoid cyber and fraud risks. The more data available, the greater the privacy risk. Conversely, if a company can enforce stricter verification standards through processes such as Know Your Business (KYB) and Know Your Customer (KYC), customer trust will increase and companies will use data to innovate and predict trends. and improve the consumer journey.

Businesses should remember that consumers are accustomed to a stable banking environment backed by stable financial institutions that ensure smooth transactions. Consumers rely on this level of certainty. The still unregulated world of the Metaverse understandably causes some anxiety. Until businesses make the Metaverse payment platform as user-friendly and trustworthy as possible, widespread adoption is unlikely to materialize anytime soon.

Opportunities in emerging markets are expanding

Virtual worlds can create new avenues to reach promising segments across industries and countries, helping to level the playing field in markets with poor financial inclusion. Arguably, one of the most valuable potentials of the Metaverse is to pave the way for consumers in emerging markets to access this market.

Digital assets can be sold, traded, and marketed through the metaverse marketplace. It represents an alternative method of accepting payment for products or services, promoting inclusivity for unbanked consumers. This creates new revenue streams and consumers that payment providers can tap into.

Latin America and APAC are seeing unprecedented e-commerce growth as the number of unbanked consumers continues to decline, indicating the potential for a larger market to open up in the metaverse. In some parts of Latin America and his APAC, where access to cross-border goods and services is more difficult from a compliance and regulatory perspective, the Metaverse will further level the playing field and facilitate participation in the global economy. can be

For example, in Brazil, PIX, the first real-time payment system available to local consumers, is rapidly advancing 24/7 real-time payments and reshaping the Brazilian payments landscape. Introduced by Brazil’s central bank, the PIX is expected to become attractive to domestic and international businesses as the country’s central bank considers implementing his PIX. growing future in the metaverse.

Consider partnering with other companies

Companies will have to decide if it is worth the time, risk and investment to build their own robust platform in the metaverse, or if partnering with other companies that already have a presence would be better. there is. While it is tempting for companies to invest in high-risk, high-return opportunities, business leaders should ask themselves whether their products and services are truly beneficial to the metaverse.

Ultimately, companies need to think about cooperation rather than competition. high seasFor example, , the largest NFT marketplace, needs many services all over the world. OpenSea needs traditional players to help move funds, access a variety of payment methods, and comply with local regulations while building a new network. Many worlds need to work together for the metaverse to work.

As we wait for the metaverse to evolve from the exploratory stage, businesses should consider new opportunities to create financial inclusion and accelerate growth. Rather than building potentially dangerous and expensive platforms into the metaverse, companies should first consider how to partner with other metaverse players most effectively.

Finally, the widespread adoption of the metaverse will depend on consumer trust. Companies that build bulletproof platforms and protect user privacy will reap the most benefits in an unknown and uncertain virtual world.

James Booth is PPRO’s Vice President of Partnerships..