Verizon’s Destination Stores aim to change the wireless retail experience for the better
Verizon Wireless today announced a new initiative for the wireless retail industry. They’re calling it the Destination Store, which is a fancy name for “tricked out store where we show you cool stuff so we can try and sell it to you.” The company showed the first of these stores off in a live stream event on their website today. So what, exactly, will this store be doing to help make the retail experience better for you?
For starters, they want to make it more than just a wall of dummy units and demo phones. They want the store to be vibrant, big, and full of different devices that will help you in your everyday life. No longer is it just about phones and tablets — it’s about everything. Treadmills, safety tools, music accessories and more will all be flaunted in this retail space.
Verizon will section off different parts of these stores and dedicate them to specific things. The Sound Zone, for instance, will house all the wireless speakers and headphones you could ever need. And all of these products will be unboxed, turned on and ready for you to play with, because no one should have to decide on buying something without being able to try it out.
What’s more is that Verizon is looking to provide interactive information displays, giving users more information about the products they’re looking at in a modern, more approachable way. Beyond all that, Verizon will look to entice you even after the sale, as they will use these Destination Stores to host training workshops that are designed to help people learn how to use their new products.
Most interesting to us is the new “integrated” checkout experience the company is touting. They want you to be able to carry your online shopping cart with you into a Verizon store, so when you walk in the customer service rep will already know exactly what you’re looking for. They’ll drive that home by emphasizing pick-up in-store options, same day delivery (in four cities to start) and more.
Verizon isn’t doing much more than any big box retailer store has been, but that’s just it — wireless carriers aren’t expected to provide that same level of retail experience. Verizon has made it their mission to do so. It’ll be interesting to see just how much this influences the other guys in the future.