Meta to Open Physical Store Showcasing Metaverse Products
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“Having the store here in Burlingame gives us more opportunity to experiment and keep the customer experience core to our development,” said Martin Gilliard, head of Meta Store, in the release. “What we learn here will help define our future retail strategy.”
“The Meta Store is going to help people make that connection to how our products can be the gateway to the metaverse in the future,” Gilliard said. “We’re not selling the metaverse in our store, but hopefully people will come in and walk out knowing a little bit more about how our products will help connect them to it.”
On May 9, Meta (formerly Facebook) will open its first interactive retail space dedicated to showcasing the tech company’s metaverse and hardware products on its campus in Burlingame, California.
The Meta Store will enable shoppers to discover and demo the company’s Portal video-calling devices, Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headsets developed by Reality Labs (formerly dubbed Facebook Reality Labs) and Ray-Ban Stories, the smart glasses that launched last year and were designed in collaboration with the American-Italian luxury eyewear brand. In addition, Meta also added a “Shop” tab to meta.com, to make it easier to shop all its hardware products in one place online.
Through interactive demos, visitors can make video calls to retail associates with Portal, learn about Ray-Ban Stories and explore VR with a “first-of-its-kind” immersive Quest 2 test experience, according to a news release from the company. Like most Best Buy stores today, the Meta Store invites shoppers to interact and pick up all its products.
Spanning just 1,550 square feet, the Meta Store has a relatively small footprint. Meta noted that it was also important to launch the first Meta Store near Reality Labs HQ, where the company is helping build the metaverse.
Inside the store, visitors can learn how Ray-Ban Stories allow users to capture and share memories and physically try on a range of style, color and lens variations. There will also be a special demo area for shoppers to experience Portal devices. Once inside, shoppers can place a video call to a retail associate to fully explore its capabilities, see the “Smart Camera” in action and play with features like “Story Time.”
The Meta Store also features an interactive Quest 2 display wall, showcasing the hardware, its accessories and the breadth of content available today. Additionally, an immersive Quest 2 demo area enables shoppers to try Meta Quest games Beat Saber, Golf+, Real VR Fishing or Supernatural on a large, wall-to-wall curved LED screen that displays what a user is seeing in-headset. Users will also see a 30-second mixed reality clip of their demo experience that they can share.
Starting May 9, the store will be open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT. Shoppers will be able to purchase Quest 2, Quest 2 accessories and Portal devices. Retail associates will help shoppers order Ray-Ban Stories directly from Ray-ban.com.
