Best Buy is rethinking its retail footprint by launching dedicated Meta AI shop-in-shops, 30-by-30-foot spaces featuring Ray-Ban Meta glasses prominently at store entrances. The company plans to have 50 stores selling the new frames by the end of 2026, with hopes to expand to as many as 200 or more by the end of 2027. Survey data shows that more than 50% of Best Buy customers want to see the Meta glasses in person before purchasing, and since launching smaller displays in 100 stores last October, more than 175,000 customers have completed in-store demos.
The shop-in-shops represent a broader strategy to position Best Buy as a hub for AI-enabled hardware. The company is restructuring store layouts by moving computing—its largest category—to the center, while keeping the perimeter flexible for future experiential retail displays and pop-ups. This approach allows the retailer to rapidly deploy new AI product experiences without lengthy renovations. Best Buy has also invested in staff readiness: 300 associates attended weeklong training at company headquarters to learn how to demo the glasses and address customer concerns around privacy and safety.
For commerce practitioners, Best Buy's playbook demonstrates how legacy retailers can reclaim their role as discovery destinations and drive traffic by creating hands-on experiences for emerging technology. The flexible store architecture and trained staff model offer a template for scaling new AI product categories quickly without reinventing the entire store layout each time.