Payment service provider Worldline released a new white label shopping mall in the metaverse this week, enabling users and merchants to tap into the possibilities of the digital world. 

Along with merchants, Worldline is inviting banks and other providers to channel their services into the metaverse as they believe it to be a future retail commerce next to Point-of-Sale (PoS). 

The white label solution is looking to help prepare companies better if they decide to enter the metaverse and gain experience. The shopping mall opened on Decentraland 8 March and the first companies to partner with Worldline are Consorbank and The Chedi Andermatt, to name a few. 

Worldline aims to test the capabilities of Decentraland as it could prove to be the future home of how businesses conduct their operations in the near future, and will look into use cases with the community in their new shopping mall to test its effectiveness. 

Sascha Münger, Metaverse Expert at Worldline, said: “We believe that the Metaverse, alongside stationary point of sale and e-commerce, is the sales channel of the future. 

“The decision to open the Worldline Shopping Mall reflects this vision. For well-known brands in particular, our virtual shopping mall offers an ideal precondition for venturing into the Metaverse with a clear conscience at low cost.”

A starter package to the Worldline shopping mall features the payment firms fiat and crypto payment services, advertisement opportunities, as well as augmented reality functions and phygital products included in the add-on package. 

“We are delighted to be one of the first banks in Europe to open a location in the Worldline Mall in the Metaverse,” commented Svenja Weith, Head of Tribe Banking at Consorsbank.

“As a pioneer in digital direct banking in Germany, it is our goal to be curious and innovative in our approach to our customers and to adapt and explore modern technologies at an early stage. It is therefore a logical step to be present in the Metaverse along with Worldline as a technology provider.” 

The decision to open a shopping mall in the Metaverse was preceded by an extensive test operation, where Worldline set up a showroom in March 2022, with well-known brands from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia and Australia attending monthly. 

This one-year test run achieved such convincing results that these companies now want to continue their commitment with their own presence in the shopping mall.

“The Chedi Andermatt is recognized for being a pioneer or more precisely a trendsetter for new and innovative approaches in the luxury hospitality industry,” concluded Jean-Yves Blatt, General Manager at The Chedi Andermatt.

“More and more guests prefer the uncomplicated opportunities that the online world entails nowadays. Thus, we are confident that in the future, the tourism and hotel industry will be just as unimaginable without the Metaverse as is online shopping for fashion.”