The lockdown is encouraging (or perhaps forcing) innovation and the virtual games exhibition hosted by Crystal Commerce is one such example.
Visit Crystals’ Booth Hall and you’ll see hundreds of familiar logos of game designers and makers. Click on one to see the various games these companies make. Click again and you might see a shop near you that sells them.
Crystal Commerce, you see, is a company that provides services to store owners. Crystal’s customers usually come to them for products like an inventory that synchronises across multiple sales channels (the shop, Amazon and eBay for example), or eCommerce enabled websites.
The virtual games exhibition that Crystal Commerce is hosting is designed to help support small retailers who are struggling during the lockdown. And there are hundreds of them.
However, Crystal’s customers are mainly American retailers, although there are some Canadian one too. There’s no presence in Europe, so nothing for the likes of me to buy, but the virtual exhibition is still easy to browser, get inspiration from and it will inevitably introduce the Crystal brand to some of Europe’s SME hobby stores.
Last week, we reported on firm rumours that a similar company, but in the comic book space, ComicHub was working on a digital code system to provide digital copies of comics straight away and then let customers visit their local retailer later to pick up the physical comic. There have no been any developments on that particular story, suggesting that the blending of digital stores to bricks and mortar stores is no easy thing to manage.
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