There have been rumors floating around that Amazon and now Google may open physical retail stores – not a whole chain’s worth, but then every chain started with a single store somewhere.

Some of the speculation has naturally focused on “bricks vs. clicks ” – that rather than rendering the store obsolete, these behemoths of the internet are now finding it valuable to have a physical retail presence. On the Google side, because the company is not exactly your traditional retailer – online only or otherwise – there has also been talk about whether a Google store would actually carry merchandise (like, say, Motorola phones) or if it would just be store #2 in the Google Logo-wear franchise.

On one level, I think that’s reading too much into all of these rumors. On another level, I’m not sure that it gives enough credit to Apple’s influence. I could launch into the usual “Apple has changed the retail game, yada yada yada “. But here, I think that more importantly, Apple has changed the electronics game. Apple’s stores focus as much on owners as on the products themselves. Amazon is now an electronics manufacturer, and Google’s not far behind. I would guess that they are looking for a way to provide an ownership experience, more so than a retail experience. Sure, retail helps, but this is more about connecting with the brand than selling products.

I think a more intriguing question that comes out of that kind speculation is this: is this what’s wrong with Best Buy? There’s no owner experience there? Sure, you can use Geek Squad, but they charge by the hour. Apple doesn’t. Do you think Amazon intends to charge by the hour to maximize the Kindle ownership experience? I would be shocked if that were the case. Just something to think about as you follow how RetailWire BrainTrust Panelists reacted to the Google/Amazon rumors…

RetailWire Discussion: And Google Plans to Open a Store, Too (Maybe)

By George Anderson, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Publisher, RetailWire

On the heels of the rumors that Amazon is planning to open its first store comes speculation that Google is looking to open its first standalone location in Dublin, Ireland.

According to Bloomberg News, Google has been operating a store-within-a-store at a Currys and PC World location in London and seen enough to try it on its own. The report said the small shop (1,323 square feet) would be located at the company’s new European headquarters building. Google currently sells merchandise with its logo at its world headquarters in California as well as online at www.googlestore.com.

As to why Google is looking at opening a store, the talk is that, as with Amazon, it too is trying to keep up with Apple, especially in light of its plan to buy smartphone manufacturer Motorola Mobility Holdings. Google’s Android is already the largest smartphone operating software.

Google, according to several reports, is moving into new product development on a number of fronts, perhaps giving it more reason to establish a retail base.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is “developing a home-entertainment system that streams music wirelessly throughout the home and would be marketed under the company’s own brand. “

Another report by 9to5Google, says the company is in the “late prototype stages ” of developing eyeglasses with a computer interface. The so-called “Google Goggles ” would use a smartphone’s internet connection to communicate “directly with the Cloud over IP, ” perhaps superimposing directional signals and informational updates on the lenses.

Google was quick to temper expectations it would soon be entering the retail space. An unnamed company spokesperson told Mashable, “We already have an online store selling things like Google T-shirts and pens. We have the option of a small space doing the same in our Dublin office, but we’ve not made any decisions. It’s simply a planning application. “

Discussion Questions: Does it make sense for Google to get into retailing? How would you counsel Google if you were advising it on setting up a retail business?

RetailWire BrainTrust comments:

We may expect more e-tailers to open physical stores within the next few months and the line between brick-and-mortar and click-and-mortar will continue to blur. Apple and Windows stores managed to orchestrate a unique, refreshing customer experience. Traditional retailers, beyond the consumer electronics category, should learn from them so that they can keep up with consumers’ expectations and compete both online and offline.

Dr. Emmanuel Probst, Vice President, Retail, Empathica

Goes to show that e-commerce is indeed hurting bland and commoditized retail but is actually generating demand for “showrooms ” where a manufacturer’s wares can be exhibited in a controlled fashion. And thus may lie the future of retail: fewer retailers, more manufacturers selling theirs products directly to the consumers online and…in brick and mortar stores.

Fabien Tiburce, President, Compliantia, Field Audits & Task Management

IF Google opens a retail store, it won’t be to sell t-shirts and pens. It will be to retail the unique consumer electronic items on the drawing boards. If done with intention and patience, it could be amazing. They have the funding and the innovative chops to make this happen. Don’t underestimate them….

Mike Osorio, Global VP Learning & Development, Chief Learning Officer, DFS Group

It makes about as much sense as Walmart getting into the search business.

Bill Emerson, President, Emerson Advisors

This is an ideal way to find out if knowing your customers well provides a better retail experience. Google knows everything about its customers — what they cook, the music they listen to, their interests — so it will be interesting to see if that translates into sales.

Cathy Hotka, Principal, Cathy Hotka & Associates

Non-traditional retailers, including e-commerce and technology solution providers, seem to be less focused on committed and expansive retail strategies with their own stores, but more interested in the idea of using these “test store ” projects as a combination of branding and market research opportunities. In addition to the recent speculation on Amazon and Google, we’ve seen similar efforts from Microsoft and others, which look like they are modeled to provide a direct consumer touchpoint for market research and for testing product and branding approaches. If Google’s intent is indeed along these lines, then there could indeed be value to them in establishing and maintaining a limited physical presence.

Matt Schmitt, President & Chief Experience Officer, Reflect

I think Google will use the retail store to learn a few things about how the consumer shops and have more of an opinion with how other retailers display their goods.

The wisdom of Elmer Fudd rings clearly, “Be vewy vewy careful! ” It is interesting to see Google experimenting with a retail presence. I think an exciting opportunity for a Google at retail would be a ‘showroom’ vehicle to educate digitally empowered shoppers on all of the Google ‘tools’- past, present and future — along with the Google Gadgets that are being developed to further the digital revolution. I would explore an improved version of Apple’s Genius Bar leveraging Google’s technologies. If it simply becomes a manufacturer’s showroom I would balk.

Adrian Weidmann, Principal, StoreStream Metrics, LLC

For the last decade plus there has been growing interest in the bricks-and-mortar clickstream, but most of the people looking at shoppers in the store are NOT looking at a second by second process, but are mostly stuck light years away (conceptually) from the actual mental PROCESS that occurs in a bricks purchase.

So now comes Google to the retail space. From a traditional bricks perspective, Google, being online, seems to be in the same space as Amazon, except that Google was behind the door when Amazon was becoming the preeminent SELLING organization in the world. Amazon knows more about the clickstream path that leads to BUY than anyone.

But Google knows more about collecting information — essentially what the clickstream is — than anyone in the world. Their information, however, is more eclectic and less purposeful, in effect, than most of the world is used to thinking. This is because, conceptually, Google can take a bucket of disorganized, apparently disconnected information, and through search, can recognize the minutest components in the bucket, and how each of those “bits ” relate to all the other bits, and can serve that INFORMATION up in an organized interface. Thus Google is the preeminent INFORMATION business in the world.

Google has a potential overwhelming advantage over Amazon here. And that is the ability to link its vast holdings of OTHER information to the shoppers clickstream. Never mind privacy. The vast transparency of individual behavior of web surfers/transactors is grist for the Google mill. Now, can Google leverage that information process to introduce the fourth retail revolution in getting people together, not just with the INFORMATION they need and want, but the stuff they need and want? Don’t count them out.

Herb Sorensen, Ph.D., Scientific Advisor TNS Global Retail & Shopper, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute

No, no, no. Just like Amazon, Google needs to stick to its core strengths. Google only needs to look at the poor performances of Microsoft as it tried to get too involved in areas that detracted from its core competencies to learn this lesson. “Stick to what you know ” is the advice which Google should use as its mandate. There are many other things which Google can improve upon (and spend its hard-earned resources) instead of opening a bricks and mortar, deficit creating store.

Kai Clarke, President, Miraclebeam Products, Inc.

Read the entire RetailWire discussion:

http://www.retailwire.com/discussion/15812

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