There’s no arguing that the Snapbot is an impressive display of retail technology, But if Snap wants to achieve widespread distribution of Spectacles (and presumably other forthcoming hardware devices), it eventually had to expand beyond the Snapbot.
So yesterday the camera company opened a pop-up shop inside the famous London department store Harrods, which marks the first time you can buy Spectacles in person and not through a Snapbot.
https://twitter.com/blairebender/status/888116805188763649
As you can see in the picture above, the display resembles a pretty traditional retail kiosk – Snap isn’t doing anything crazy here, and that may be the point.
There is a phone (an Android!) docked to the kiosk, which looks like it’s showing off the 360-degree video that Spectacles can capture. But besides that there isn’t much tech – there’s an old-fashioned mirror for try-ons, which is the exact opposite of the high-tech augmented reality that Snapbots use to let you try on Spectacles.
Essentially the low-tech display is approachable for people of all ages, and may convince people to buy a pair (or at least try them on), who may otherwise be confused or annoyed by the giant yellow vending machine and the fact it doesn’t let you actually touch or try on the glasses.
This isn’t the only sign that Snap is looking to diversify its retail channels to get Spectacles in as many hands as possible. The camera company recently made Spectacles available to purchase on Amazon, which comes a few months after they started selling them on their own website directly to consumers. Snap has also recently been putting Snapbots in major malls for several weeks at a time throughout the U.S, which is a big departure from the exclusivity that surrounded the device at launch.
