IMVU Adds Real World Brands

One thing common to almost all virtual worlds is shopping. In some worlds such as Second Life the trade is purely between players, in others users can buy credits with which to purchase items at the official world store.

Virtual chat site IMVU is one of those that sells users credits with which to buy virtual products for their avatars. With 35 million registered users this is big business – IMVU gets over 90% of its revenue from the sale of credits.

That figure could well rise further given the launch of Branded Stores. These will sell virtual products from real-world brands and artists. For example, the picture here shows an IMVU avatar in Trouble Andrew sunglasses, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus sweatshirt and Metropark jeans.

Also included in the launch of Branded Stores are Underoath and J.Holiday. Links to the official brand stores are at the bottom of the IMVU main product catalogue page.