The metaverse is defined as a shared, realistic, and immersive computer simulation of the real world or other possible worlds, in which people participate as digital avatars. Sounds futuristic and a bit geeky. Will it be a world mainly for gamers, or will it blossom into an opportunity for the masses where ecommerce will thrive?
Metaverse Fashion Week opened in March 2022 at Decentraland and digital-native brands showcased their highly anticipated wearable collections, digital spaces, NFT’s and breakthrough activations to fans. And there were also some big ‘traditional’ names involved, such as Estee Lauder, Selfridges and Dolce Gabbana.
Major brands have bought ‘real estate’ and opened flagship stores in Decentraland showing their commitment to this new digital era. Visitors to Estee Lauder’s digital space were invited to step into their iconic bottle during the event last week to unlock a digital Proof of Attendance Protocol and claim a NFT wearable to give their avatar a glowing radiant aura inspired by their skin care products.
Marketers are seeing an opportunity to meet consumers where they are online, be that on social channels or in the metaverse. Over the pandemic, people who had previously shied away from shopping online, were forced to try it, 77% of those surveyed said they would continue to buy online, permanently changing consumers buying habits. With the continued acceleration in eCommerce and Shopify hinting at a recent interview that they suspect they might partner with Facebook inside of Meta, chances are the Metaverse is here to stay. How will it affect the eCommerce job market?
Which jobs will be relevant in the metaverse?
With the rise of AI, many repetitive jobs will become automated. However, AI is not good at creative problem solving, philosophical debate and empathetic reasoning. Navigating and creating human centric tech will use all these skills.
Currently, when signing up to social channels, you agree to terms and conditions. These terms mean that the data you willingly post actually belong to the channel. So, if you post a picture of your children or dog on Meta, Meta owns that image. Lawyers will need to work out who will own the rights to data in the metaverse. Twitter already operates terms whereby all content is the sole responsibility of the originator. In future, technology should be designed to turn the tables with the rights of the human being ahead of the company.
There will be many qualified tech people required to roll out this approach to all social channels both in and outside of the metaverse. Plus all the eCommerce tech jobs we know will be increasingly relevant:
- Fintech Engineers
- Project and Programme Management
- Architecture (Solution & Enterprise
- eCommerce specific Backend Development
- Business Analyst & Product Owners
- Frontend Development
- Generic Backend Development (Java/PHP/.Net)
- Quality Assurance & Testing
- Mobile Development
What other jobs might be needed (that haven’t been invented yet!)
There are increasing numbers of Metaverse Architects, Directors of NFT’s, and #futurists on LinkedIn bio’s. The job roles that will be created for the metaverse remain to be seen, but here are some positions that could be in demand by 2030.
Metaverse Research Scientists
This role will be to build the entire world that is visible and actionable digitally. This will be the architecture that forms the foundations upon which the games, adverts DeFi etc will be built.
Planners
CEOs set the vision and strategy for their business’ revenues, but someone will need to drive it with a strategic portfolio of opportunities from proof-of-concept to pilot to deployment. That means identifying market opportunities, building business cases, influencing engineering roadmaps, developing key metrics…
Metaverse Cyber-Security Experts
To ensure privacy. Police In-world ID verification and keep the metaverse safe from hackers and cyberattacks.
Plus
Lots and lots of hardware engineers.
Obviously the metaverse cannot be built like a computer game. It needs an entire ecosystem built around it. Hardware sensors to detect movement and facial expressions. Haptic suits to mimic touch and sensations. Headsets to project you into the digital world, CPUs, GPUs, KYC processes, data-lakes, green electricity production, edge computing, laws and regulations.
The possibilities and opportunities in the metaverse seem endless. Ecommerce tech jobs are in high demand now and it seems that they are going to increase exponentially in the future. There’s never been a better time to start a career in tech.
Potential Jobs of the future:
Human centric designers and ethicists estimated salary (2040) £100K+
Today they would be:
Systems designers, software engineers, professor of ethics, psychologists, philosophers
Data scientists and brokers salary (2040) 75K+
Today they would be:
Software developers, data and business analysts, psychology, statistics, economics, data science.
