Digital gaming platform Roblox has been toying around with real-world commerce integrations for a while, but now the company is getting serious with the addition of two new features: Commerce APIs that will allow brands and creators to sell physical products within their virtual Roblox experiences, and a separate new program that lets brands link product purchases in the real world with digital items in Roblox.
These new commerce capabilities underscore Roblox’s ambition to pioneer a “new kind of shopping” that blends fandom, physical goods and self-expression in virtual environments. Roblox currently boasts 97.8 million daily users, and its immersive free play-style virtual ecosystem already includes the sale and purchase of countless numbers of digital products every day.
“Our vision for the future of shopping is an experience that’s more exciting and social than the traditional online shopping experience,” said a company blog post announcing the updates. “On Roblox, you can explore virtual stores, try on clothes and share the experience with others. This naturally builds interest and purchase intent. Now we’re taking it one step further, bridging the gap between virtual and real-world shopping by enabling Roblox users to purchase physical items.”
Shopify Integration Enables Sale of Real-World Goods in Roblox
Shopify is the first integration partner for the new Roblox Commerce APIs, a partnership that was first announced late last year. The addition of other integration partners and the expansion of the capability to additional markets is in the works, according to a Roblox blog post. Through the integration, Roblox creators with a Shopify ecommerce store can now sell physical items as well as digital ones on the platform. These commerce experiences will only be available to users ages 13 and up.
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“Shopping is already endemic to our community, and we are excited to offer a seamless way for creators and brands to explore commerce on Roblox,” said Stephanie Latham, VP of Global Brand Partnerships and Advertising on Roblox. “For our community creators, this new way to monetize and deepen connections with their fanbase has already shown a lot of potential in our early tests. For users this is an organic, social and fun way to purchase physical goods directly from their favorite experiences. And for brands, commerce provides a way to build purchase intent and interest in products, reaching the unique Gen Z audience that comes to our platform.”
While the integration is launching within brands’ and creators’ own Roblox worlds, Latham added that “in the near future, we envision enabling brands to integrate their shops into popular community-created experiences with high traffic. This way they can expand reach and tap into digital communities they can’t access elsewhere online.”
Fenty Beauty and musician The Weeknd are among the first to launch shoppable experiences that leverage this new functionality in their Roblox environments. Fenty Beauty’s new shoppable game offers a new shade of its Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer for purchase exclusively in the game, and The Weeknd is offering an exclusive shoppable ticket bundle for his film Hurry Up Tomorrow, paired with a limited-edition digital item on Roblox in his new playable world-building experience.
“We’re merging the physical and digital worlds by offering a first-of-its-kind shopping experience inside the game that brings our brand from Roblox to real life,” said Nanette Wong, VP of Global Brand Marketing at Fenty Beauty in a statement. “Players can seamlessly connect, create, play and now shop our best-selling lip gloss, Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer in Grape Splash, getting all the options they’ve been craving in one place.”
Merchants can now Attach Roblox Digital Items to Real-World Purchases
Separately, the new Roblox Approved Merchandiser Program (AMP) enables creators, brands, manufacturers and IP holders to link off-platform retail or ecommerce purchases to avatar items and accessories on Roblox. Products that are included in the program will feature an AMD badge with a code for a unique digital item, relevant to the IP, that they can use on Roblox.
“With the launch of our Approved Merchandiser Program, we’re further bridging the gap between physical retail and digital experiences,” said Christian Bayley, Global Head of Licensing and Consumer Products at Roblox in a statement. “It offers creators, brands and IP holders a new way to connect with Roblox’s highly engaged communities, drive loyalty and unlock commerce opportunities. This program will help grow the value of IP on Roblox and beyond, offering fans another authentic way to engage with brand products and brands they love.”
Paramount’s SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the launch partners for AMP across all categories of consumer products, as is acclaimed Transformers and Bad Boys filmmaker Michael Bay, who is now exploring new IP, including the Gen Alpha and Gen Z phenomenon Skibidi: “The thing about Skibidi is it doesn’t fit neatly into a box,” said Bay in a statement. “That’s the point. When you can move between film, gaming platforms like Roblox and physical products, you can take storytelling somewhere transformative.”
