The idea of the metaverse is still quite fuzzy, but two facts are clear: a lot of companies are interested in creating virtual experiences for some of their activities, at least because now it's definitely cool to be metaverse-y, and there is now a solid enough base of software tools that can help in creating private virtual worlds. Italian company Hevolus Innovation offers one of these tools - the low-code platform hVERSE - and has just completed an interesting metaverse project for Würth Italia.

Würth Italia, which is part of the global Würth Group, has been operating across the automotive, craft and construction sectors for nearly 60 years. Based in South Tyrol, the company has 200 sales outlets distributed throughout the country. Würth Italia considers the metaverse a fundamental technology to strengthen its leadership on the market. A pioneering role that the company aims to achieve by investing in mixed reality solutions and using them to improve the in-person and online sales experience for its customers.

“Würth Italia has always invested in technologies and innovations that allow the company to optimize the customer journey and increase customer satisfaction”, says Nicola Piazza, CEO of Würth Italia. “In the era of the digital revolution, the partnership created with Hevolus was certainly a winner, in fact it allowed us to create the first Metaverse in Italy: the Wverse. The Würth Metaverse (Wverse) represents an epochal turning point, giving our customers the opportunity to live a new, emotional, and immersive shopping experience and allowing them to interact at the inside the Metaverse through their avatars. In the Metaverse it is also possible to carry out remote events, carry out networking and training activities”.

The goal of the metaverse created by Hevolus is to support Würth Italia to promote and sell its range of products designed for logistics, from large shelving to vending machines for personal protective equipment (PPE) up to modular systems, often too large and heavy to be physically transported to places and shown to potential buyers.

The virtual environment is a futuristic personalized and immersive 3D architecture in which visitors can access with their personal avatar. To offer customers an even more engaging and interactive experience, the Hevolus metaverse can support Mixed Reality and this is possible thanks to the Microsoft HoloLens 2.

By accessing Wverse, Würth Italia metaverse, customers can take a tour of the company, view the entire range of products and systems, interact with vendors and system consultants through their avatars, obtaining assistance in real time. Access is via any device, so it does not require any special technology.

“Würth had two goals for its metaverse project: increasing retail sales and strengthening e-commerce" says Antonio Squeo, CEO of Hevolus Innovation. "The accessibility and scalability guaranteed by our platform ensure that the metaverse can be used by everyone, even via web. The most effective way to show a product is when the customer sees it in its real size but there are cases where this is not an easy task. The metaverse developed with hVERSE allows customers to visualize complex products and systems through their interactive 3D digital twins. This experience offers an extremely accurate idea of ​​how the product can adapt to real space”.