How Meta is thinking about physical stores

It’s still early days for tech giant Meta’s push into physical retail, but a top executive from the company recently said it thinks of stores as a candid way to get quick feedback from people.

“Our stores exist to do what physical does best: let people try a new category and tell us immediately what clicks and what doesn’t,” Nicola Mendelsohn, head of global business group at Meta, said during her session on “AI and Human Creativity Shaping Tomorrow's Shopping Experiences” at Shoptalk last week. “That feedback helps us improve everything from hardware design to software experience and then scale what we learn across our partner and retail footprint.”

Meta has five retail stores in the US dubbed “Meta Labs.” The social media giant opened its most recent store on Fifth Avenue, one of New York City’s most important retail corners, in March. The space lets visitors experience Meta’s AI-powered glasses and virtual-reality headsets firsthand.

Person-to-person feedback “also grounds us in the day-to-day realities retailers face,” Mendelsohn said, “reinforcing why tools like omnichannel ads matter to turn digital demand into in-store purchases.” To be sure, omnichannel ads are tools to not only drive online sales for merchants, but also drive people to stores.

The company said it thinks of retailers like “co-pilots” in this new AI reset as the future of shopping becomes deeply personal.

Meta’s retail chapter began in 2022 when it opened its first flagship near San Francisco in Burlingame, California. The company also has stores in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York.

Meta has sharpened its focus on the full shopping journey by giving more power to creators to tag products, and is testing an affiliate program for creators on Instagram and Facebook. According to Meta, 45% of shoppers say influencers affect what they buy. Plus, the company introduced a one-tap checkout experience with Stripe and PayPal in a direct counter to TikTok Shop, as one expert previously told Retail Brew.

Ultimately, Mendelsohn said, “physical scales belief, digital scales reach, AI personalizes, and winning brands use all three.”