279. Into the metaverse: Why Meta opened a retail store
Retail Gets Real · with Martin Gilliard · August 9, 2022 · 24 min
Summary
Meta’s physical retail store is a strategic move to demystify the metaverse and its hardware for consumers. By creating an immersive, living room-like environment, Meta aims to offer hands-on experiences with VR headsets, smart glasses, and video call devices. This initiative provides a blueprint for how ecommerce brands can bridge the gap between digital and physical, preparing retailers for the metaverse economy and showcasing the value of experiential retail for complex products.
Key takeaways
Meta's store demonstrates how physical retail can serve as an experiential hub for complex, emerging technologies, allowing customers to try before they buy into the metaverse.
Retailers should consider how to create "phygital" (physical + digital) experiences that bring abstract concepts like the metaverse to life for their customers, echoing Meta’s strategy of mimicking a living room setting.
The store highlights the importance of customer education and immersion for new product categories. By allowing direct interaction with VR headsets and smart glasses, Meta reduces perceived barriers to entry for metaverse adoption.
Traditional retailers can learn from Meta’s approach to understand and prepare for opportunities in the metaverse, by focusing on tangible product experiences and addressing customer hesitations directly.
The initiative underscores a shift towards combining online and offline channels to enhance the customer journey, especially for products requiring significant user understanding and engagement.
Meta’s store reveals that even digital-first companies recognize the power of physical presence to drive adoption and understanding of new technologies.
Martin Gilliard, Head of Meta Store, joins the show to chat about why Meta opened a physical store, what the store is designed to do and what retailers need to know about emerging opportunities in the metaverse. Gilliard describes the Meta store as a physical space designed to mimic a living room, where consumers can try out the devices such as the Oculus VR headsets, Portal video call devices and RayBan-partnered smart glasses that can enable them to have experiences in the metaverse. Gillard describes how customers have responded to the experiences in the store so far and how retailers should be thinking about the metaverse. Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
Meta's store demonstrates how physical retail can serve as an experiential hub for complex, emerging technologies, allowing customers to try before they buy into the metaverse.
What does this episode say about brand & content?
Retailers should consider how to create "phygital" (physical + digital) experiences that bring abstract concepts like the metaverse to life for their customers, echoing Meta’s strategy of mimicking a living room setting.
What does this episode say about dtc strategy?
The store highlights the importance of customer education and immersion for new product categories. By allowing direct interaction with VR headsets and smart glasses, Meta reduces perceived barriers to entry for metaverse adoption.
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
Traditional retailers can learn from Meta’s approach to understand and prepare for opportunities in the metaverse, by focusing on tangible product experiences and addressing customer hesitations directly.
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
The initiative underscores a shift towards combining online and offline channels to enhance the customer journey, especially for products requiring significant user understanding and engagement.
