Meta, the social media and tech mega-corp, is getting its first-ever physical retail store, along with an online shop. The Meta Store will be selling headsets and offering demos to help people “connect” to the metaverse.

According to Business Insider, the tech company will open the new in-person shop on 9 May 2022 in California. Reportedly, the company, formerly known as Facebook, changed its name last year to Meta to align with and reflect its shift to building its “metaverse” – which it imagined as an immersive, hyper-realistic digital world, and one that requires VR hardware to participate in.

“The best way to understand virtual reality is to experience it,” CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg also noted that the new store will focus on allowing people to “demo” apps and products, creating “a sense of what’s coming as we build toward the metaverse.”

The company has also appointed Martin Gillard as the new head of Meta Store.

“The Meta Store is going to help people make that connection to how our products can be the gateway to the metaverse in the future,” Gillard said.

“We’re not selling the metaverse in our store, but hopefully people will come in and walk out knowing a little bit more about how our products will help connect them to it,” he added.

The new store, as opposed to a popular trend, will not be placed in an area that will get a lot of foot traffic. It will remain at the Facebook office campus, meaning it will not be open during weekends.

Gillard says that they are trying to learn from their users, at this stage, as quickly as possible.

“It gives us more opportunity to experiment and keep the customer experience core to our development,” he said.

“What we learn here will help define our future retail strategy,” said Gillard, explaining their future plans for Meta Store.


By Zintle Nkohla 

Follow Zintle Nkohla on Twitter
Follow IT News Africa on Twitter

Sign Up for Our Newsletters

Get notified of the best deals on our WordPress themes.

You May Also Like

UBA & Cellulant Join Forces to Unite Africa’s Payments Ecosystem

Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa (UBA), and Cellulant, a leading Pan-African payments company, have announced a partnership that will extend payment services for merchants and consumers across 19 key African…
View Post

South Africa’s Dis-Chem Takes a Swing at WhatsApp Commerce

Clickatell, a CPaaS innovator and Chat Commerce leader, has been selected by leading South African retailer, Dis-Chem Pharmacies, to enable WhatsApp as its customer communication channel to engage with its…
View Post

Vodacom & Accenture Join Forces for Bespoke Cybersecurity

South African telco Vodacom and Ireland-based IT services company Accenture have partnered to launch Vodacom Managed Security services through Vodacom Business. The partnership was publically announced yesterday via press release.…
View Post

TymeBank Launches Medical Insurance App for South Africans

TymeBank, the South Africa-based exclusively digital retail bank, has announced a new partnership with National HealthCare for affordable medical insurance to consumers, through the launch of TymeHealth, an app-based offering…
View Post

Towards a Stable & Sustainable Future with Power 4.0

A digital overhaul of the power and utilities sector – Power 4.0 – is delivering enhanced process efficiency, improved asset utilization, centralized visibility, better regulatory compliance, enhanced sustainability and stellar…
View Post

Nokia Kenya Dodges a $260,000 Fine in Service Centre Contract Feud

A Kenyan court has reportedly rejected a petition filed by Kenyan dealer TechnoService which is seeking Sh150-million ($257,832.60) from cellphone manufacturer Nokia for allegedly selling some of its businesses to…
View Post