Meta Testing Experiential Retail to Sell Ray-Ban Smart Glasses

Meta is promoting its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses at a Meta Lab pop-up store in Los Angeles that lets visitors experience the glasses firsthand.

The temporary brick-and-mortar store at 8600 Melrose Avenue includes an AI wall that lets visitors test the smart AI assistant on the glasses, an immersion experience room that allows them to capture themselves in an AI-generated version of the beach, and an opportunity to have their glasses cases customized while they shop, whether or not they make a purchase, the company said in a Thursday (Nov. 7) blog post.

The pop-up store in L.A. is one of three types of experiential first-party retail being tested in the Meta Lab project, according to the post. These include a pure pop-up that was tested at Meta’s Connect 2024 event, the limited-time test of a flagship store in L.A., and a shop-in-shop that will be tested in Phoenix in January.

These phases of the Meta Lab project will inform the company’s future efforts around experiential first-party retail, per the post.

Over one in four of the attendees who went through the Meta Lab at Connect made a purchase, according to the post.

“When you let somebody try out a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses, you become the best salesperson ever,” Creative Director Matt Jacobson said in the post. “Getting these on people’s faces so they could play with it and discover Meta AI, that is really magical.”

Meta and EssilorLuxottica began collaborating on Ray-Ban branded smart glasses in 2019, combining the former’s technological advancements with the latter’s expertise in eyewear and achieving mainstream success, PYMNTS reported in September.

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time in a press release: “I’m proud of the work we’ve done with EssilorLuxottica so far, and I’m excited about our long-term roadmap ahead. We have the opportunity to turn glasses into the next major technology platform and make it fashionable in the process.”

In another, separate development in this space, it was reported Nov. 4 that Apple is exploring the viability of entering the smart glasses market. The firm has launched an in-house study of currently available products.