Google Is Opening Its First Flagship Store Outside Of The US

Google has announced it will open a flagship store in Tokyo, Japan. The Google Store Omotesando will be the company’s first retail store outside the US, for the most part.

Visitors to the store “can see and purchase a wide range of Google products and partner brands, including Google Pixel smartphones, Google Nest products, Google Fitbit devices, and accessories.” They will also be able to try out Google’s latest “AI experiences” and see Google services in action.

Plus, much like Apple’s Genius Bar, the Google Store will have staff who can perform on-site Google Pixel repairs, help with setup, and troubleshoot. There will also be in-store workshops when the Omotesando store opens this summer. According to Google, the decision to open a store in Tokyo mirrors when the company opened its first international office in Japan.

Yes, technically, this is Google’s first full-on store outside the US. In Canada, Google offers store-within-a-store shops at some Best Buy locations. These Google Shops offer customers the chance to test out products in person and learn more about the company’s offerings — ideally with Google experts rather than a general sales associate. In 2015, the company opened a Google Shop within Currys, a British electronics retailer, in London, which has since shuttered.

Google isn’t the first digital tech giant to open brick-and-mortar stores worldwide, as Apple has. In 2009, Microsoft opened its first two physical stores alongside the launch of Windows 7. Soon, more stores followed, and two years later, the company announced plans to open 75 more stores over three years.

Throughout the 2010s, Microsoft opened stores in major international cities like Sydney and London. Then the COVID-19 pandemic came, followed by the closure of almost all of its shops. Today, there’s just a “Microsoft Experience Center” in New York City and a “Microsoft Visitor Center” in Redmond, Virginia.