Google Gets Physical

Despite its omnipresence in web life, there has always been something ephemeral about Google. It's familiar to us, with its colorful logo and slightly less colorful founders, but its physical presence in our lives is hard to quantify or describe.

We use it, but dont often consciously pay for it. We rely on the information it provides, the directions it gives us and even the way it has changed the way we research everything from school papers to deals on used cars. All without vetting or even paying much attention to the dominant role it plays in the way we now function. But we dont really touch it - and strategists at the company are evidently beginning to wonder if that is a drawback.

Apple has its products and its highly visible, even iconic retail locations. We have purchased Microsoft products for decades (albeit not always happily), and Amazon ships real stuff to us.

So Google is starting to evolve away from its 'Google Inside' Intel-derivative strategy to a high-touch, 'let's get physical' approach. The Android phones were step one, though the degree of separation remains. Google glasses were a highly publicized debut for the product strategy as has been the follow-on driverless car.

The company is now taking a next, more declarative step by going full retail. It has announced it will open stores by year-end. There are already Google boutiques being used to gather information, test design concepts and to actually sell merchandise.

What is interesting is the counter-intuitive nature of the move. As the world becomes more comfortable with - and dependent on - a mobile, online approach to sales, opening stores would appear to be a kind of throw-back tactic intended to promote the brand while maybe pushing some t-shirts and phones on the side. But Apple is doing @$50 million a year at each of its retail locations and has a far higher market cap than Google. All of which suggests that what's old really is new and that there might just be something to this cyclicality thing. JL

Alyson Shontell reports in Business Insider:

Reports have been circulating that Google is going to open retail store locations, similar to Apple Stores, across the nation. And actually, it could be a  pretty great idea.

For starters, 90% of purchases are still made in physical retail locations. Retail stores have worked well for Apple; Tim Cook says, on average, each generates more than $50 million in annual revenue.
Apple Stores only cost one-fifth of that to set up, and Google will likely spend even less to get its locations up and running. Of course, labor costs are the real expense, and historically Google has preferred automation to human labor, so they'd have to get over that cultural impulse. But Apple has shown that building out stores is a pretty good use of the cash pile it keeps accumulating.
In addition to the revenue opportunity, analysts think Google stores could lift the brand's public perception. The company has very little interaction with the public; it's only physically existed in pop-up stores or stores within stores. Google never even ran a commercial until 2009.
Now that it's making hardware like Android devices, Google Glass, and self-driving cars, it's smart to create a place where customers can interact with the latest innovations hands-on.
If Google can increase consumer trust, it could have a positive effect on all Google products, including Google+, Google Wallet and more.
That said, Microsoft has tried building out retail stores and it hasn't improved its market-share situation. But Android is already popular with consumers and Google is a globally familiar brand.
What Google has been missing is the opportunity for consumers to touch and feel gadgets before they buy them. That seems even more the case with tablets, an area where Google really needs to play catch-up with Apple.
Retail stores could give Google the image boost it needs to really compete with Apple.