Mashable launches shoppable virtual home featuring Walmart products

Dive Brief:

As South by South West (SXSW) goes virtual this year, media and entertainment brand Mashable has made the Mashable Home a completely virtual experience. The virtually-rendered 3D home offers users a variety of shoppable content from Walmart.
Users can virtually navigate a house, which includes high-concept rooms, editorial content, interactive games, live on-demand programming and shoppable hotspots where they can purchase springtime products directly from Wamart.com, according to a press release Monday.
Mashable Home has six core rooms and the company will introduce new content from March 8 to March 12 through a live programming event. All of the content will be accessible through April 8, per the release.

Dive Insight:

Walmart, other retailers, as well as tech companies, continue to heavily invest in seamless ways to incorporate shoppable content in different channels.

Instagram recently launched "Shopping in Reels" in December, which allows users to purchase products tagged within the Reels. Google also released a video shopping platform called Shoploop last July, where consumers can discover several products through 90 second or less videos. Mashable itself has partnered with eBay to add shopping tag icons in articles and images for readers to buy the items on eBay's marketplace.

In December, Walmart brought livestream shopping events to TikTok, where it enlisted influencers like Michael Le to showcase both private label and national Walmart brands. The event lasted an hour and emphasized fashion and apparel brands like Champion, Jordache and Walmart's Free Assembly. This week the big-box retailer is launching its second shoppable livestream on TikTok, this time to showcase beauty products including L'Oréal's Maybelline and NYX Cosmetics brands, Bliss, The Lip Bar, Kim Kimble and Marc Jacobs fragrances.

Mashable Home has over 50 products for users to discover in the house — particularly in the kitchen, the living room and the outdoor space — and potentially add to their cart on Walmart's website, the release said.

Each room is designed to inspire users to make the most out of the space, according to the release, and will come with programming as well. For instance, users can watch a cooking video in the kitchen featuring an influencer who uses Walmart's groceries and cooking tools to execute recipes.

The concept came from the media company's Mashable House, which it hosted in Austin, Texas, during the annual SXSW festival. The festival was canceled last year and will be going virtual this year, according to SXSW's official website.