Despite the fact that Google has not been able to get their act together with regards to retailing hardware in a virtual environment through the Play Store, it looks like Google is set to follow both Apple and Microsoft in trying to sell their products through their own Google branded retail outlets.
According to 9to5Google, our favourite search giant is looking to open their first flagship Google Store in the US by the time the ‘Holidays’ roll around this year. The higher-ups within Google felt that this would be a great way to get their products into consumers hands, with the imminent arrival of Google Glass being a major factor in their decision to investigate the retail space allowing them show off the product and its features to its fullest.
Google already operates their own Chrome store-within-a-store kiosks within some Best Buy stores in the US and PCWorld/Dixons in the UK as well as kiosks in major Airports. The new retail stores would feature Google trained employees who would be able to show off the features and benefits of the Nexus products as well as Google Glass and Chromebooks, with potential to sell some of the Google branded merchandise that can currently be purchased from the GoogleStore website.
I’d love to see these stores proliferate across the globe and certainly would love to see Google merchandise and Chromebooks sold in a retail environment here in Australia, it would certainly give a lot of peace of mind to potential customers who still prefer the traditional bricks and mortar style of retail to the online only Play Store model Google currently employs. Stores in Australia are most likely a fair while off as I’m sure Google would be testing the retail waters with a few keystone stores in the US first but I’d be there opening night for sure.
Let us know in the comments – Would you like to see a Google branded store in Australia? What sort of things would you like to see sold in them?
