Walmart has partnered with game development platform Unity to allow players to buy products without leaving their game or virtual world.

Unity developers now have the ability to integrate Walmart’s commerce APIs directly into their games and apps. Creators will be able to sell physical items across over 20 platforms and increase monetisation channels and games in virtual experiences.

Walmart said that by keeping players in their games, creators can maintain their immersive experiences, extending session engagement.

Creators will also be able to receive affiliate commissions from certain physical purchases powered by Walmart.

There are around 1.1 million developers using the Unity editor on a monthly basis and around 3.6 billion downloads of apps which are made using Unity.

“We have an opportunity to connect the physical and digital realms in a way that only Walmart can, meeting our customers and members with authentic experiences where they already are,” said Tom Kang, vice president and general manager, metaverse commerce, Walmart's Store No. 8. “By opening up Walmart’s commerce APIs to the Unity development community, we’re empowering developers to offer a new mechanism to further drive user engagement while making it easy and convenient for players to complete a transaction for physical products without leaving the game, virtual world or app.”

In September last year, Walmart launched a virtual experience on the gaming platform Roblox to allow shoppers to discover new products and creators. Users are able to save virtual items or experiences for purchase at a later date, as well as customise their experiences with a selfie corner to create social media content and show off what their avatar is wearing.

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