Google's first store pops up in London
It is the ultimate brand of the internet era. But today Google embraces a more traditional form of retail technology for the first time in its short history. — The world's first “Google store” opened not in California but in the less glamorous setting …
Context & Ripple Effects
The London pop-up lands in the middle of Google's most consumer-facing quarter yet: the company is running unprecedented front-page promotion for Google+ content, StatCounter data has Chrome on the brink of overtaking Firefox as the world's number-two browser, and a leaked eBay listing has already given shoppers a two-minute look at the unreleased Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
There is no prior retail experiment in the record to build on — this is Google's first physical store anywhere, and notably it opens in London rather than California. For a company whose brand was built entirely online, the move is a test of whether that brand carries weight in a walk-in setting.
First-order effects
- London consumers get their first physical Google touchpoint, letting the company demonstrate Android devices like the forthcoming Ice Cream Sandwich handsets face-to-face instead of through leaks and screenshots.
- Google takes on the fixed costs of staffing and stocking a retail site with no proven hardware line to sell, betting the brand alone draws foot traffic.
Second-order effects
- A demo venue strengthens the two franchises doing the heavy lifting in Google's consumer push — Chrome, which StatCounter projects will pass Firefox by December 2011, and Android, whose next version now has a place to be shown rather than leaked.
Third-order effects
- If the pop-up format proves out, physical retail becomes a standing channel for internet-native brands as their software franchises mature into consumer product lines — a structural shift from distribution-through-the-browser to distribution-through-storefronts, with the permanence of the format still unproven.
The trend: Internet-era brands are beginning to experiment with physical retail as their software ecosystems — Android, Chrome, social — turn into tangible consumer products that benefit from hands-on selling.