What: A quarter of the population will be daily involved in the metaverse in 4 years’ time.

Why it is important: It is time for retailers to start looking at the metaverse, however not too heavily, as it is not clear yet on which platform investments should be made.

According to Gartner, 25% of people will spend at least one hour of shopping, entertaining, or education, in the metaverse by 2026. The consultancy company explains it by the fact that these activities, which are already taking place digitally, will be increasingly aggregated in a single platform, or a reduced number of them, thus giving de facto birth to the metaverse (which already exists by other criteria).

Because no single vendor will own the metaverse, Gartner expects it to have a virtual economy which will impact every business consumers interact with every day. It will also impact how work gets done, as better engagement, collaboration and connection is to be expected too. According to Gartner, 30% of companies will have products and services ready for the metaverse.

However, since the technology is nascent, Gartner cautions organisations about heavily investing in a specific metaverse, as it is still too early to know which investments will be viable in the long term.

![ARTICLE 25%

25% of people will spend at least an hour per day in the metaverse by 2026