Retailers and Second Life

Retailers are getting into the Second Life trend and seeing how they could benefit from the buzz over Second Life. One of the first few retailers that have got onto the Second Life bandwagon are Circuit City, Sears, American Apparel, Dell and Adidas. Outside retail, companies such as Nissan, H&R Block and Reuters are also getting into the act. According to Scott Silverman, executive director at Shop.org, the e-commerce division of NRF, “Second Life is a trial for what may very well be the next big thing in Internet retailing.” Elaine Rubin, chairman of Shop.org, is very optimistic about Second Life and says that it is a new way for consumers to connect with each other as well as companies.

The number of Second Life residents, and their demographics, are hard to pin down. One day in early April, the company was reporting 5.5 million total residents: 1.5 million had returned to the virtual world in the last 60 days, and just over 30,000 were logged in at that moment. And some watchers have pointed out that there are individuals with multiple avatars, rendering these counts circumspect.