Google will open showrooms
in 7 cities this winter in its first foray into retail. Taking a cue from Apple’s and now Mircosoft’s
success in opening retail outlets, Google is introducing showroom’s called “Winter
Wonderlands” to exhibit products like the Nexus 7 tablet, Chromebook computers,
and Chromecast video-streaming devices.
The idea is to create a showroom where consumers can touch, feel, and experience
Google products and order them to their doorstep in time for the holiday
season. In addition, the mysterious
barge floating in the San Francisco bay has finally been revealed as “an interactive
space where people can learn about new technology”.
From my perspective, it
looks like Google may be in the testing stage of exploring a retail strategy
roll out. As the tech titan continues to
diversify and include more hardware solutions into the mix, it looks like this
may be the logical next step for the distribution strategy. But I would caution that retail is a very
different business than Google’s core competency and that it is a cutthroat,
rapidly evolving world. Not that Google
isn’t prepared to deal with these challenges, but retail is no longer just
about the product, its about the experience, about customer engagement, about
innovation and creativity and Google must be equipped to deal with all of these
aspects at launch. I can’t wait to see
how the showroom’s perform and to see whether the can endure past the holiday
rush.
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