b8ta, the US CE retail startup by former Nest employees, promises to make opening brick-and-mortar stores easier with "Built by b8ta"-- a software solution promising to bring about the store-as-a-service.
The startup opened a first 130-square-metre space located in Palo Alto, California, in 2015. It allowed customers to check out devices on a hands-on basis, with employees demoing products such as drones, security cameras and VR headsets. Fast forward to 2018, and b8ta now has 79 outlets, including shop-in-shops. It also claims to have "the process of opening stores down to a science, from financing to real estate to construction and staffing and beyond."
Built by b8ta promises to allow brands to deploy an entire store through cloud=powered software built on b8ta's experience doing exactly that. It features a modular store design system to reduce costs and time to open, partnerships with real estate owners to provide turnkey store financing and eliminate lease negotiations, and analytics allowing one to run multiple outlets.
"Our superior economic model makes opening a store with us at least 50% less expensive than doing it on your own," b8ta says. "You won't have to sign a lease, hire design and construction firms, or employ staff. You keep 100% of your sales, and completely manage store operations using our software. We also provide powerful analytics that help you optimize every piece of your store experience for performance."
The first Built by b8ta store opens in Silicon Valley on June 2018.
