In September, I reported (story #1) that Shopify and Roblox teamed up to pilot Shopify's checkout within Roblox's virtual worlds, marking the first platform commerce partnership for Roblox. Through the integration, brands on Shopify can sell physical items to customers using real currency without ever leaving the Roblox platform.
For example, a Roblox player can interact with a t-shirt display on an in-game mannequin and then purchase the real life version of the shirt along with a digital replica for their character using Shopify checkout. After purchasing, the customer receives an order confirmation e-mail from the Shopify store, which takes over the sale. The customer then receives a virtual version of the item immediately, and the real / physical item is sent in the mail.
At the time, the integration with Shopify was in a pilot phase, with a broader rollout planned for 2025.
As of last week, the platform has entered a closed beta test, allowing a select group of developers to gain access to the integration tools, including the creators of the Roblox experiences “Catalog Avatar Creator,” “Tower Heroes,” and “Creatures of Sonaria,” with more experiences expected to launch their stores over the next few weeks.
Digiday reports that some of the store operators are already reporting a significant boost in sales as a result.
Evan Zirschky, Lootbloc's Director of Partnerships, said, “We’ve actually been very surprised by how much merch we’re selling now, especially compared to what we were selling just a week ago. We actually sold our first plushie with them back in July, and we’ve had products like hats and embroidered shirts on our website since then. But now that it’s actually in-game, we are selling tens or hundreds of multiples more than we were before.”
Louqman Parampath, Roblox's VP of Product, Ads and Commerce, said, “We are seeing some early positive signals from these tests showing how commerce can enable creators and brands to tap into existing user interests and build deeper connections with their audiences. While creators are still experimenting with merchandising and placement of offerings within their experiences, the implementations so far have felt additive and easy for them to leverage as an extension of their creation process. This is encouraging as we work towards offering self-serve tools to our broader community in 2025.”