Earlier this year, we interviewed Starfruit, the Swiss virtual world ecommerce developer, about its activities selling virtual items in Second Life, and partnering with real-world retailers to turn them into physical gifts. Now the company has officially announced its partnership with florist Fleurop.com - Interflora.
Starfruit’s business model is based around selling virtual gifts - chocolates, flowers and jewellery. People buy them in Second Life, paying with Linden dollars, and then give them to another avatar, who can redeem them against real-life versions delivered to their door by Fleurop.
The company is still seeing distinctly seasonal takeup of the service - Christmas and Valentine’s Day being particularly popular - and it’s planning to work with other real-world merchants to add new products in the future.
Working with the likes of Fleurop.com - Interflora apparently gives customers more confidence, since the physical goods are being handled by a big real-world brand. The challenge for Starfruit now is to try and build more regular business in between its existing busy periods, whether within Second Life, or other virtual worlds.
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