Google opens its first flagship store outside the United States

Google has announced the opening of a flagship store in Tokyo, Japan. The Omotesando Google Store will essentially be the company’s first retail store outside of the United States.

Visitors to the store “can view 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 test Google’s latest “AI experiments” and see Google services in action.

Additionally, just like Apple’s Genius Bar, the Google Store will have staff capable of performing on-site Google Pixel repairs, helping with setup, and troubleshooting. 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 echoes the company’s opening of its first international office in Japan.

Yes, technically this is Google’s first full store outside of the US. In Canada, Google offers store-within-a-store stores in select Best Buy stores. These Google Stores give customers the opportunity to test products in person and learn more about the company’s offerings, ideally from Google experts rather than a general salesperson. In 2015, the company opened a Google Store inside Currys, a British electronics retailer, in London, which has since closed.

Google is not the first digital tech giant to open physical stores around the world, as Apple has done. In 2009, Microsoft opened its first two physical stores alongside the launch of Windows 7. Soon, other 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 came the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the closure of almost all of its stores. Today, there is only a Microsoft Experience Center in New York and a Microsoft Visitor Center in Redmond, Virginia.