We’re being told every day about the metaverse’s shiny, new, amazing possibilities. Immersive shopping experiences! Digital fashion! Infinite aisles without ever leaving your couch! A potential trillion-dollar metaverse retail market by 2034—doesn’t that just make you salivate?! Content marketers are mindlessly trillionizing the 47% CAGR. Yet, behind the alluring, glistening windows of metaverse shopping and personalized, code-based avatars, there exists a more disturbing reality. We need to grapple with this uncomfortable reality now, before it’s too late.

Whose Data Is Being Mined?

Just consider the incredible amount of data that metaverse retail will produce. Every swipe, every view, every digital “fitting” becomes a piece of information, carefully harvested back to the fashion brand and studied. Technology companies have social media platforms that have targeted and weaponized our data. They serve up highly customized content specifically engineered to prey on our emotions and maximize our human response. Do we really think metaverse retail is going to turn out any differently?

That dream of more personalized and intelligent shopping experiences rapidly turns into a nightmare with pervasive hyper-targeted advertising and the specter of price discrimination. Now, picture walking into a digital shop. Prices can change insidiously depending on how rich you look, or based on your past purchase patterns. It’s not science fiction — it’s a near-term reality. And what about data breaches? Are these nascent metaverse platforms really capable of safeguarding our sensitive data from bad actors?

To me, this feels like such an echo of the gold rush of the 19th century. Everyone's so focused on striking it rich that they're ignoring the environmental devastation left in their wake. Data is the new gold of the 21st century. In terms of the environment, the metaverse retail sector is going to be the biggest mining operation the world has ever seen.

Accessibility: A Luxury, Not a Right?

The metaverse is being pitched as a new democratizing force, a virtual space where anyone can come, interact, and create in an equitable environment. Is it really? Let's be realistic: accessing metaverse retail requires expensive VR/AR equipment, reliable and high-speed internet, and a certain level of digital literacy.

And what about the millions of people who don’t have access to a VR headset. What about the communities that are still grappling with not having developed internet infrastructure at all? Are we creating a two-tiered retail system? The rich are enjoying the benefits of immersive, highly individualized experiences, while the poor continue to suffer with old-line, legacy retail.

And this isn’t merely an issue of access to shopping, it’s access to opportunity. Retail is going through a transformation that is going online at lightning speed. People who get left behind in the metaverse will experience detrimental economic and social effects. We have to come back down to earth and acknowledge that digital inclusion isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity, and an essential right. Are we truly at peace with a future where the real life inequities are synthetically reproduced and amplified in this digital world?

A New Kind of Cultural Plunder

And as a proud descendant of Irish storytellers, I’m deeply troubled by the risk of cultural appropriation embedded in metaverse retail. Brands use popular, cultural symbols, traditions, and folklore as a means of profit. They do this with no appreciation for, or acknowledgment of, the space’s original intent.

We’ve hardly scratched the surface with egregious instances of cultural appropriation in the fashion sector. What’s to prevent metaverse retail from becoming an even larger hotbed for this type of exploitation? Digital fashion NFTs could just be the beginning of a new age cultural plunder. They might erase communities’ connection to their history and heritage, while commercializing their cultural relics.

The opportunities within the metaverse are limitless because it has no physical boundaries. All of this combined provides an ideal breeding ground for potential abuses to fester. We need to ask ourselves: who gets to define and control cultural narratives in this virtual space? And how do we make sure that members of marginalized communities don’t get exploited or misrepresented in the process?

Solutions: A Call to Action

Okay, enough with the doom and gloom. What can we actually do about this?

Here are a few concrete steps we can take to mitigate the dark side of metaverse retail:

  • Advocate for strong data privacy regulations: We need laws that protect our data from being misused by metaverse platforms, with clear guidelines on data collection, storage, and usage.
  • Promote digital inclusion initiatives: Governments and private organizations should invest in programs that provide affordable internet access, digital literacy training, and access to VR/AR equipment for underserved communities.
  • Support small businesses: We need to level the playing field for small businesses, providing them with the resources and training they need to adapt to the metaverse and compete with large corporations.
  • Champion ethical cultural representation: We need to hold brands accountable for their cultural representations in the metaverse, demanding that they engage with and respect the communities whose cultures they are borrowing from.

Metaverse retail is an incredible opportunity that absolutely does not need us to be hoodwinked by the hype. What remains clear is that we need to examine this technology critically. We have to acknowledge its unintended consequences and begin to plan to mitigate them. The future of retail – and honestly, the future of all society – might just depend on it. We can’t let an expensive dream of a trillion-dollar network turn into a real‐world social‐media nightmare.