Meta has been working on plans to open physical stores and hire retail workers, Business Insider has learned.
The company has a project to expand its retail footprint, which is not broadly known internally yet, according to an internal communication seen by BI. The communication also said Meta planned to hire retail employees.
Meta has only one physical retail space, Meta Store, which it opened on its campus in Burlingame, California, in 2022. The store lets shoppers test out some of its hardware products, including its Meta Quest VR headsets and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, much like its rival Apple, which has more than 500 retail stores globally.
It's unclear how many stores Meta might open or on what timeline, but it experimented with the idea last year by opening a pop-up store, Meta Lab, to sell its smart glasses in Los Angeles.
Meta declined to comment.
An expansion could boost its sales of hardware products, such as smart glasses. Meta sold more than 1 million units last year. In an all-hands meeting earlier this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it was a "great start" but "not going to move the needle and the business in a core way." He added that 2025 would offer an indication of whether the product line will become a "long-term grind" or whether AI glasses will become a "really prominent computing platform" in the near term.
The company is also on a mission this year to "drive sales, retention, and engagement," Andrew Bosworth, its chief technology officer, said last year in an internal memo. He also said Meta planned to launch half a dozen more AI-powered wearables this year.
Meta is set to face more competition, with OpenAI this month acquiring the former Apple design chief Jony Ive's startup, IO, to build a new type of device for the artificial intelligence era.
Big Tech companies have a history of venturing into retail stores. Amazon opened its first brick-and-mortar store in late 2015 and has since expanded with different brands, including Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go. But it has scaled back some of those stores in recent years.
Apple, meanwhile, has made brick-and-mortar an important part of its sales strategy. It has sleek stores around the world that are designed to allow consumers to explore its suite of products and engage with the brand.
Microsoft closed all of its retail stores amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 but continues to operate a small number of Experience Centers and more than 40 Innovation Hubs.
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