Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse and Its Potential for Indonesian SMEs: A Qualitative Study

In recent years, the Indonesian government, especially under the leadership of the President, has been aggressively promoting the digitalization of SMEs.This is a strategic step to increase the competitiveness of Indonesian SMEs during the increasingly rapid digital economy.In its development, the metaverse is a virtual world that allows its users to have avatars and meet online in a community.By joining the Metaverse ecosystem, SMEs can create unique virtual stores, organize immersive promotional events, and interact directly with consumers more personally.Based on these opportunities, this study examines the potential for implementing metaverse technology to encourage the growth of Indonesian small and medium enterprises (SMEs), using a qualitative approach and data collection with Focus Group Discussions with Industry Players, Government, and Academics.Transcript content analysis and literature study were conducted to find the state of the art.The results of this study produce an overview of the Indonesian Metaverse, which can be used as material to identify technical factors, features, business models, and stakeholders' roles in developing the metaverse for Virtual Commerce.