Retail’s blurring lines between physical and online continue, with Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California LLC delving into gamification.
The men’s and women’s retailer, with 375 stores, said this month users on San Mateo-based Roblox Corp.’s (NYSE: RBLX) gaming platform can now dress their avatars with PacSun-branded clothing. It’s the start of a bigger push into weaving the PacSun brand into the popular world of digital games.
Roblox, with a market cap of $52 billion, lets people create and play games with others globally by accessing its online marketplace via a PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, Amazon and other places.
The company notched a 140% year-over-year revenue increase in the first quarter to $387 million. Daily active users in April totaled 43.3 million, which was a year-over-year increase of 37%. User hours of engagement that same month totaled 3.2 billion, reflecting an 18% jump from April 2020.
PacSun said it is also working with game developer Melon on the creation of a virtual environment that would include games and social experiences due out this summer in a bid to create a place where its Gen Z customers can connect and hang out online.
This is on top of a big push by the retailer on social media platforms, including the ability to shop from Instagram ads, virtual try-ons using Snapchat and plans to get into shoppability on TikTok next year.
