Though we are living in the age of online shopping, yet Google preferred to open a traditional physical world’s first Google Reatail Store “ChromoZone” in the premises of great London, to compete with Apple which has several retail stores worldwide.
Interestingly, the world’s first “Google store” opened not in California but in the less glamorous setting of PC World in Tottenham Court Road at 9am.
This 285sqft Google Store popped-up as a “shop within a shop”, only selling Google’s Chromebook laptop and a few accessories like headphones, and will run for 03 months only…. up to Christmas.
However, If Google finds this key experience quite successful and up to their satisfaction, it could follow its arched competitor Apple in opening permanent stores worldwide.
Notably, the opening ceremony of world’s first Google Retail Store in London was not as populated as on the launch of the first Apple Store in Regent Street. Only very few customers were even aware of this first Google shop officially known as “the Chromezone”- so no queues were monitored round the block.
Arvind Desikan, head of consumer marketing at Google UK, expressed his views on opening of world’s first Google Retail store in London:
“It is our first foray into physical retail. This is a new channel for us and it’s still very, very early days. It’s something Google is going to play with and see where it leads. We found anecdotally that when people tried the device and played with it, that made a huge difference to their understanding of what the Chromebook is all about. People will be able to go in and have a play with the devices. We want to see whether people understand what this device is all about and monitor their reaction when they try it out.”
He told that according to their research still 80% of laptop sales are done through physical retail shops.
At present, the Samsung-made Chromebook, coming with price tag of £349 for the wi-fi only version and £399 for wi-fi and 3G, has only been available in the UK online from Amazon and PC World.
Google has planned to open its second Retail store A at Lakeside shopping centre in Essex on October 7 and more pilot shops around the world in the coming months.
A Google spokeswoman told:
“We’ve put a lot of effort into making it feel welcoming, homely and, dare I say it, ‘Googley’.”
Google, the company behind gmail, Google Earth & Google Street View, is also planning to acquire 160,000sqft of space in the Central St Giles development in Midtown, along with two large offices nearby Victoria station as well.
Google has recently also signed a lease agreement for a seven-floor building in east London, where it will “develop” new London based technology start-ups, as part of a government-backed expansion of the “Silicon Roundabout” area.
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