Stephanie Latham, Roblox | Modern Retail Vanguard 2024
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Roblox has mostly been known as a gaming platform for kids since it was founded in 2003. But in recent months, the California-based company has ramped up efforts to establish itself as a leading e-commerce destination for brands.
Stephanie Latham, vp of global brand partnerships and advertising at Roblox, works behind the scenes to court brand partners to Roblox’s virtual platform. To date, there are more than 400 brand activations on Roblox. With Latham at the helm, Roblox deepened its partnership with Walmart, enabling them to test selling physical goods directly to users inside Roblox. Soon after, E.l.f. Beauty also tested selling real-world products on Roblox. Next, Roblox announced that Shopify brands will be able to sell physical items to users within the platform in early 2025. Latham has only been at the company since last October, but in the short time she’s been at Roblox, she has helped scale Roblox into a virtual shopping mall.
The goal of these experiments has been to help brands reach more customers, especially Gen Z, while also testing Roblox’s potential beyond mere gaming. In the long term, Roblox expects creators of Roblox experiences, including brands, to be able to sell any item available at a major online retailer within the platform.
“[E-commerce] is something that has been being tossed around at Roblox for quite some time, but we got serious about it in earnest about a year ago, right around when I joined,” says Latham. “This was one of those win-win for everyone because it means better experiences for our users and more opportunities for our developers and brands to monetize or drive ROI.”
Walmart, Latham says, was “a really natural partner to lean into from the start” because the company already had pre-existing activations and experiences within the platform.
A former Meta executive, Latham’s prior experience makes her well-equipped to secure and execute Roblox’s brand partnerships. She spent 12 years at Meta, and in her final role at the social media company, she led Meta’s entertainment, tech and telecom sales organization in North America.
To Latham, the biggest challenges of the job boil down to myth-busting. “There are misperceptions that we’re a kids-only gaming company.” But Latham says that ages over 13 are one of the fast-growing demographic segments on Roblox. In these early days of commerce on Roblox, only U.S. users who are 13 years or older can buy physical items on Roblox.