Lotte Innovate's Caliverse opens virtual styling shop for Lotte Giants fans

Lotte Innovate's Caliverse has launched a virtual styling shop aimed at baseball fandom, seeking to help consumers make purchase decisions while expanding its footprint in immersive commerce.

Lotte Innovate said Thursday that its subsidiary Caliverse had rolled out the "Lotte Giants virtual styling shop," an immersive commerce service. Immersive commerce refers to technology that lets consumers directly experience products in virtual or augmented reality environments to help them decide what to buy.

Lotte Innovate said it launched the service in response to growing fan demand for baseball merchandise. Fans can dress an AI avatar in the virtual styling shop with uniforms, caps and other goods before deciding whether to make a purchase.

The Lotte Giants virtual styling shop consists of an "AI styling shop" and an "immersive store." In the AI styling shop, users can choose from 33 types of merchandise actually used at the ballpark. Selecting an item for purchase takes users directly to the Lotte ON page, allowing them to browse and buy in one step.

In the immersive store, users can explore two virtual spaces: a "professional uniform hall" and a "Giants flagship store hall." Selecting a displayed product in either space also leads to a purchase page.

The Lotte Giants virtual styling shop can be accessed through a Lotte Giants-related banner on the Lotte ON homepage. It requires no separate app installation and works on both PC and mobile.

Caliverse plans to draw on its operational experience in immersive commerce to widen its customer touch points. The company also plans to expand into a range of business areas by upgrading features that include personalized product recommendations and styling functions, season-specific planned content, and virtual-space-based experiential content.

"The Lotte Giants virtual styling shop was designed to let fans mix and match clothing and merchandise that suit them, browse products in a virtual store and experience fan culture," a Caliverse official said. "We will continue to build on AI technology to upgrade fans' shopping experience and roll out differentiated immersive commerce services."

Meanwhile, Lotte Innovate acquired virtual reality content company VisionVR in July 2021 for 12 billion won ($8.97 million). VisionVR later changed its name to Caliverse and took charge of Lotte Group's metaverse project. Caliverse officially launched its ultra-realistic metaverse platform, also named Caliverse, in August 2024, and is pursuing projects in cooperation with various business areas, including group affiliates.