Consumers may love shopping online, but that doesn’t mean that it’s right for all purchases. Sometimes, you need to try before you buy. This is where having a physical location comes in handy.

Retailers that began in an exclusive eCommerce format like Birch Box and Athleta have started opening brick and mortar locations over the past few years. Now even Amazon is opening physical locations.

Google may be thought of first as a search engine, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their place in retail. After all they have products to sell; like laptops, phones, tablets and Chromecasts. In the future they may also have a reinvented version of Google Glass. With this in mind, they have opened their first “shop in shop”, called The Google Shop, in Curry’s PC World in London.

The Google Shop will allow customers to explore the different devices available from Google and to learn about how the devices work together.

Features of the Google Shop

Just because the Google Shop is a shop within a shop, doesn’t mean it’s a simple mall kiosk where you buy cell phones. The Google Shop experience is a unique, innovative and interactive one.

It features “Portal”, a surround-screen which allows users to explore Google Earth. The “Doodle Wall” lets customers use digital spray cans to paint their own version of a Google logo, which they can then share on social media. The “Chromecast Pod” is a spot for customers to watch movies from Google Play or videos on YouTube. The “Shadowbox” is positioned to be visible from the sidewalk to draw passersby into the store. It shows rotating digital art which highlights local London landmarks.

The Google Shop will also host public events and classes, including Virtual Space Camps which will teach children how to code.

Google has also announced a new online shop where they will sell their hardware, at store.google.com.