Industry Experts and Business Consultants' Takes on India's Readiness for Metaverse

Abstract

Metaverse is a 21st-century, cutting edge technology that evolved as a science fiction in the early 90's in the western world, which captured the imagination of people across the globe. India, with its 1.4 billion population, the fifth largest economy in the world, and exalted position in software and information technology augurs well for embracing metaverse in future businesses. The present chapter aims to find the acceptance and readiness of Indian retail industry for the use of metaverse in its operation. Authors tried to do qualitative analysis of industry experts' and business consultants' opinion on metaverse in retail sector to find the opportunities and likely trends. This chapter also takes Google trend on metaverse searches into account. A systematic general review of published articles and cases from secondary sources forms the basis of this chapter. Findings suggest that the changing dynamics of social interactions in the Metaverse are on the brink of a revolution, promising transformative impacts on the retail industry and consumer behaviors.