Canada Post’s Maple Grove, an online community in the virtual world of Second Life, has built a retail city of 10 leading Canadian retailers to provide an online shopping and entertainment experience to the 380,000 registered Canadians visiting the site.

‘With Second Life being inhabited by more than 8 million registered users, and over 60,000 registered users generating income, the opportunity and awareness for Canada Post are huge,’ Stephanie Bullock, director of segment management, direct marketing at Canada Post tells MiC. ‘We are looking for ways to engage the online consumer, and provide a value-added benefit to them and to our retail partners. Our consumers have told us they like shopping from the convenience of their homes.’

Online shoppers can walk through city streets and visit the 3D virtual stores to shop and order holiday gifts without leaving Second Life. As well, visitors to Maple Grove can visit Canada Post and send packages or buy stamps and cards.

Besides shopping in Maple Grove, Second Life avatars can attend live music events presented by Telus, one of the retailers. Inside the Telus Theatre, popular Canadian Second Life musicians perform live concerts during the holiday season.

The Green Café and the Bright Idea Lab are also new additions to Maple Grove this year. The Green Café is a virtual coffee shop that serves as a resource and education centre for Canada Post’s green initiative and provides information about how to ‘green’ your mail.

In October this year, Canada Post launched the Bright Idea Lab, a business incubator designed to educate Second Life business owners about direct marketing and offer them free tools to make their businesses more successful.

www.canadapost.ca