Google opens its first bricks-and-mortar retail store

Smith John    Jan 22, 2021

Sneak peek: A sneak peek ahead of the opening of Google's first bricks-and-mortar store On Thursday morning (Thursday evening), Google will open its first brick-and-mortar retail store in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. Now, Google has given us a sneak peek at the store's interior. The Google Chelsea store is a bit like an Apple store, but it's for people who want to buy Google products and get service support. Google has previously opened pop-up shops to sell merchandise, but the Chelsea store will become a permanent building in Google's New York office. The decision to open brick-and-mortar stores is unusual for Google, which does not make most of its revenue from hardware products, as Apple does. Advertising revenues at Google reached $147bn last year, accounting for more than 80 per cent of revenues at Google's parent company, Alphabet. But retail stores may help Google get a better sense of what customers want in hardware, and even help people understand that Google is developing its own devices, from thermostats to phones and laptops. In a brief introduction to its retail stores earlier this week, Google said the company wanted to create a space where consumers could experience all of its devices and services to show how the products work together in different places. The Google retail store, for example, has a separate room where people can see how the Pixel camera's night vision function works, how the Nest Hub smart screen works in your bedroom, and how it helps you answer your smart doorbell. Another room shows Google Stadia, a gaming service that allows customers to launch a game on a mobile phone and then watch it on a big-screen TV. Inside the Chelsea store, a 17-foot-long circular glass structure called 'Imagination Space' will showcase the latest technological advances made by Google. First, it will provide a Google translation experience created by a Tokyo-based artist. Customers whisper a phrase and it softly translates it into 24 languages, simultaneously displaying the text on the screen. Google will also provide full support for consumer products and services. Google says its retail stores will be able to fix broken screens for Pixel phones, possibly within the day; You can also repair Nest products; It even helps people better understand their Google accounts and any Google software like ChromeOS or Gmail. Customers can make an appointment to come in and ask for help. Google also sells subscription products such as Stadia. At the same time, Google will also provide other experiences in retail stores that can be found in Apple retail stores. Google, for example, holds a lecture on the basics and provides in-depth analysis of its products. Google wants to learn what people want from the retail store and then incorporate those needs into the product. Google is said to have chosen this time of year because the company sees pent-up demand for hands-on experiences, with New York merchants seeing an increase in foot traffic to their retail stores.