The Omni-Verse Evolution. From Omnichannel To Metaverse

The Omni-Verse Evolution | From Omnichannel To Metaverse

April 5, 2022

It doesn’t matter if it’s omnichannel, metaverse, omniverse…the final goal and outcome will always be human.

Getting the omnichannel right for organizations is something that has been in process for many years. People’s behaviors have been studied, processes have been adapted, and services have started to reshape in order to be personalized to their respective audiences.

We got to the point of identifying that omnichannel isn’t really about recreating the offline world online. Instead, it’s about following people’s journeys to find the right tools and provide a seamless and frictionless experience throughout all channels.

Embracing The Challenges Of A Digital Transformation

The real transformation came with the traditional businesses and teams who were looking to integrate and co-create with digital native teams and companies. At the end, the winners ended up being the ones who managed to find the right formula to identify the solution, and not the technology, the outcome, and not the tools.

It’s true technology is known for being the enabler of the digital transformation, but in the practice, traditional players found it hard to understand the tech teams, while the digital first products weren’t much interested in the offline traditional commerce world.

As a chief of transformation, I personally went through a journey of ups and downs, and it wasn’t until the very end when I was confident that the final goal and outcome was really human. We were not dealing with avatars or a metaverse. We were - and continue to be - playing a human evolution game, looking how to connect and engage with people's interests and activities.

With Change Comes Opportunity

And in the blink of an eye the metaverse came. Out of the blue for some; and just a new world (genius marketing & branding!) for others - a virtual mirror of the fast-paced reality we had been living in for the past years (accelerated even more by the COVID isolation and the fast adoption of the virtual world across generations).

However, what many may have not understood (or at least it wasn’t clear to me at first) is that the metaverse isn’t a new world or a virtual augmented reality sci-fi creation. As I see it, this is an extension of our real world across many of our daily interactions: we moved meetings there, we are shopping there, we attended fashion weeks in the metaverse, we played and we continue to communicate there…our attention and focus is THERE. But what really made the ‘digital world’ become a ‘metaverse’ is the sophistications of its creative collective and the endless evolution of its services.

Metaverse: 2022's Version Of The "Information Superhighway"

Let’s take a look to the 90s’! Back then, the term ‘information highways’ was used to refer to the internet, but also on the keynote speech given by Bill Gates back in 1994 at COMDEX: “Information at your fingertips”. In this event, the co-founder of Microsoft predicted how digital innovations were going to be shaping that “information superhighway” in the future. In fact, on one of the scenarios, he presented a woman watching the TV, but not just any. She was actually also able to do it on demand. Familiar, huh? What is now a reality for us, not so long ago was a mere vision of the future…and it still is today.

Back in October, Mark Zuckerberg gave a speech about the metaverse where he drew its vision and opportunities in a similar way as it had been done by Bill Gates more than 20 years ago.

Whether you are optimistic or pessimistic about the metaverse’s pronouncements, it all points that the digital world is – and will continue to be – evolving faster than ever.

Digital Nomads: The New Norm

While traditional businesses were busy trying to connect to their communities online through services, others were creating new worlds (blockchain, crypto, gaming, NFTs, digital art, etc) with their own virtual currencies, and their respective tribes – who were not only users, but also the designers of the new rules.

Rules that were initially defined by a new generation of entrepreneurs that is now getting higher attention - due to their wealth and PR - and that is also reshaping the financial and entrepreneurial ecosystems as we know them.

Meanwhile, the traditional businesses are yet to crack omnichannel and co-exist with their digital teams and counterparts!

So, What Now?

I usually like to look at Gen Zers to understand better how native they are in that new metaverse world, their behaviors, and what makes them want to spend money online for entertainment and for building status.

Don’t always try to identify your habits and believe this shift can be compared to your world – I don’t think it does. You need to look around, at other – and younger – generations in order to shift properly and be able to adapt yourself to these new worlds.

In the case of traditional businesses, they will have a very hard time in the short-term process of embedding and transforming their universe. In fact, they will have to coexist and collaborate with the metaverse natives in the process.

Form Your Collective

A few years ago, I tried to hire a luxury cobbler to offer its services in Level Shoes at that time. The Human Resources team had a very tough time hiring that profile (note that we were a luxury retail company and not Designers). Integrating it internally would have been such a challenging culture fit for the candidate. To my joy (and relief) I came upon a cobbler company that was willing to take a space and offer their services to my customers, within my space and concept.

This same case that I happened to live a few years ago, I would still apply it now, with the same model. Don’t try to hire and create a ‘metaverse team’. The Metaverse experts are natives. Just collaborate, coexist, and find synergies for now with a main shared outcome: offering a holistic world to a community of ever-evolving humans.

It starts and ends with humans – at least until we all meet our alien brothers and sisters!

Embrace the challenges of digital transformation instead of fearing them – and watch the magic happen!

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