Walmart is expanding its relationship with Roblox to offer the platform’s 70 million daily users the ability to purchase real-world items within games.
A new e-commerce feature launched last week as a pilot update to the retailer’s Walmart Discovered Roblox experience (pictured). When US-based players over the age of 13 enter the game, it now features a shop area where they can purchase three curated products. After a sale is completed, Walmart ships the item to the user’s address, and they also receive a free digital version of it for their avatar to wear in-game.
For this first round of products, Walmart collaborated with Roblox creators Sarabxlla, Junozy and MD17_RBLX to design digital versions of a No Boundaries-branded hobo bag, a set of Onn wireless headphones and a TAL tumbler. Roblox’s VP of economy Enrico D’Angelo says that Walmart will conduct multiple tests over the coming months to gather feedback, test the technology and learn which items resonate the best with Gen Z users.
Throughout this testing phase, all revenue generated from sales will go directly to Walmart, while Roblox uses the experiment to gauge its community’s interest in purchasing products on the platform.
The Walmart Discovered Roblox game, which was developed by LA-based Sawhorse Productions in collaboration with the big-box retailer, launched in September and has been played more than 20.7 million times to date.