Fintech firm Sokin is targeting the metaverse with plans to offer e-commerce payments to let brands and businesses grow from a physical store into the virtual world.
The metaverse craze has caught on and is a term to describe the creation of shared, 3D virtual spaces that are linked to a virtual universe and accessed through different online tools.
London-based Sokin reckons no single metaverse world exists where consumers can shop for brands, however, the company will launch its own metaverse community designed to process full e-commerce transactions.
Vroon Modgill, Founder and CEO at Sokin, explains: “We’ve seen campaigns by retailers in which an avatar models an item of clothing but then the experience abruptly stops there. So, we close the sales loop by ensuring a purchase can be made directly within the metaverse experience”.
Sokin’s move might be a good one.
As Fortune recently reported, JP Morgan Chase has set up shop in the Metajuku mall. The bank’s lounge features a spiral staircase, a live tiger and an illuminated portrait of CEO Jamie Dimon.
This is not in the real world but in Decentraland – a metaverse platform. The bank’s metaverse launch coincided with the release of a paper by Onyx, JP Morgan’s blockchain arm launched in 2020, which explores the opportunities offered by the metaverse.
Like Meta, JP Morgan thinks the metaverse offers great prospects. The bank predicts that the metaverse will become a $1 trillion (£734 billion) market opportunity in yearly revenues.
Back to Sokin. Consumers will be able to make purchases through Sokin’s peer-to-peer mobile app within the metaverse.
As the fintech firm notes, the metaverse e-commerce community has already taken initial steps into the virtual world with high-street retailer, PrettyLittleThing, launching its first unnamed digital model, ‘Virtual Girl’, while brands such as Gucci, Burberry and Balenciaga already offer digital versions of their clothing to consumers.
Sokin is active in over 32 countries (in the real world) and has over 120,000 registered users and 175,000 on its global waiting list. Launches in Brazil, Canada and India are “expected imminently”.
Modgill mentioned football as Sokin is the official FX global payments provider for football clubs Arsenal, Everton, Fulham and AS Monaco, and the NFL team, the Miami Dolphins, with “others due to be announced shortly”.
Sokin was founded in 2019, the company is headquartered in London and has ten offices globally. Sokin is a trading name, and a registered trademark of Plata Capital Ltd.
