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The number of internet users in India has reached almost one billion today, and life without it seems impossible. Be it watching videos, ordering food, performing banking transactions, or looking for a life partner, it’s all happening online.

But today’s internet is something that we mainly look at, not something we are immersed in. The next step is the metaverse, an evolution of today’s 2D internet, which will transition everyday activities like shopping, dating, and working out to the 3D metaverse.

Brands are buzzing about the immersive metaverse opportunity, and the potential is what led Lokesh Rao and Sunil Arora, Founders of Trace Network Labs, to launch Pariz Metaverse, the world’s first fully functional and next-gen fashion and lifestyle metaverse.

Launched at TechSparks 2023 Mumbai edition, Pariz Metaverse leverages technology to advance meta commerce and revolutionise online shopping for all online and offline brands, including D2C brands, to build their metaverse retail presence with metastores. This translates into a virtual world where fashion enthusiasts can socialise, shop, and interact in a more engaging way.

At the product launch, Rao asked the audience if it was possible for a girl from a Tier III city to explore Western culture and socialise with people from other countries in an immersive manner today? “The answer is no,” he said.

He cited the example of Chaitanya, a brilliant high school student who is inspired by Elon Musk and wants to explore the universe and “do something for humanity”. “Can he do what he can today with the access he has? YouTube and textbooks won’t help him; he needs something beyond,” he said.

Rao asked the audience to imagine if one of them was getting married. “When you’re not ordering online, you’d go to the store. But if your fiance is in a different city, and your brother in a different country, who will help you? Who will give you feedback? The current internet faces these challenges, so we need a metaverse to provide depth.”

The metaverse allows users to interact with other users by using avatars. This is the third dimension of the internet, which offers a more immersive experience than traditional websites.

Returning to Chaitanya, the high school student, Rao said this tech can make it possible for him “to see the entire rocket”, virtually open and disassemble them to see how they function. A girl from a Tier III city will have the opportunity to socialise with Westerners.

That is the freedom that the metaverse is giving us, the co-founder said.

What Pariz Metaverse will do

According to McKinsey, the metaverse is the emerging 3-D-enabled digital space that uses virtual reality, augmented reality, and other advanced internet and semiconductor technology to “allow people to have lifelike personal and business experiences online”.

Pariz Metaverse is leading the charge in the world of virtual fashion with the world’s first functional fashion-focused metaverse to revolutionise the way we shop.

“Pariz Metaverse offers an immersive ecommerce experience that traditional platforms cannot match. The engaging shopping experience lets fashion brands connect better with their customers, while online shoppers can browse, select, and purchase physical fashion products with ease,” Rao said.

He also demonstrated how Pariz Metaverse addresses the challenges of navigation and identity in the virtual world. The user-friendly interface and ability to create avatars that reflect their physical appearance lets them easily find what they are looking for and interact with others in the virtual world.

Pariz launch in the Techsparks event also marked the launch of 3 Retail Stores of popular brands such as Madame, Zivame, StyleUp, and Da Milano. These stores will soon launch a “buy in Metaverse, deliver at home’ services. Eventually, visitors to these Brand stores on PARIZ will be guided by AI or human-avatar driven store assistants through the selection process that will enable the discovery-to-delivery cycle we see in Web2 ecommerce sites. Users can walk about the store, try a product, click on a product, zoom in and out for a detailed view of each product. It also provides a range of shopping experiences and events aligned to the brands on PARIZ.

However, Rao said the Pariz Metaverse is not just about shopping. The platform also offers a 24/7 lounge for users to meet up with friends, family, or business partners in a comfortable and casual setting. It also enables immersive events like meetups, conferences, comedy shows, fashion shows, musical evenings, TED or Josh Talks type of events and much more.

With the fashion industry rapidly moving towards digital transformation, Pariz Metaverse marks a significant milestone, providing a new frontier in virtual fashion and promising to revolutionise the way India interacts online and shops.