Vibhu Norby, CEO of Solana Spaces, said Solana’s physical stores will attract up to 100,000 people per month to the Solana ecosystem, while announcing the upcoming virtual store opening.
Thanks to a grant from the Solana Foundation, the first Solana Spaces store opened Thursday in the upscale Hudson Yards mall in New York City.
Engaging the community in a Twitter AMA shortly after launch, Norby explained that the store is intended to teach new users how to use decentralized applications (DApps) and noted that it would introduce thousands of people to the Solana blockchain:
“People don’t realize this, but we’re going to bring between 50,000 and 100,000 people into Solana every month through these stores – and that’s just this year.”
Speaking to Cointelegraph in a post-AMAs phone interview, Norby said the store received 400 visitors, also revealing that new brick-and-mortar stores were in the works in the United States, and that “the store designed for people who are completely. new to blockchain”.
Solana is home to over a thousand DApps, from exchanges and social media to games and non-mixed tokens (NFTs).
Solana Spaces NYC is now open: https://t.co/jZcZ99l5Cj
We are the world’s first retail & education space dedicated to Web3.
Brought to you in association with @solanafndnand partners @phantom, @céimoofficial, @orca_so, @magiceden, @metaplex, @degenapeacadi and others. pic.twitter.com/VoKnrIMmWP
— Solana Spaces (@solanaspaces) July 28, 2022
Solana Spaces NYC is now open: https://t.co/jZcZ99l5Cj
We are the first commercial and educational space dedicated to Web3.
In collaboration with @solanafndn and partners @phantom, @stepnofficial, @orca_so, @magiceden, @metaplex, @degenapeacademy and more. pic.twitter.com/VoKnrIMmWP
— Solana Spaces (@solanaspaces) July 28, 2022
While technically a store that sells a limited run of Solana-based merchandise, it primarily functions as a retail-as-a-service teaching hub where new users receive coaching sessions. Various DApps:
“A shop is not meant to be a place where you buy things. This is a store designed to be an educational experience. We sell Solana merchandise, socks and hoodies and other fun things, but that’s not the main purpose.”
The concept of retail as a service refers to stores that act as showrooms for products that customers can buy online. This improves product presentation and reduces inventory requirements.
Norby added that the people who will benefit the most from the store are those who have little or no exposure to blockchain. He said half of the customers who visited the store on launch day had some exposure to Ether (ETH) or Bitcoin (BTC) or had no idea what it was. He said :
“You don’t need to be here if you don’t need Sick products. If you trade NFTs full time, we can’t offer you that value.”
So far, customers have responded positively to the new store. Mutual venture partner Craig Burel called it “pretty epic” in a Twitter post Thursday, echo feedback from other customers.
IRL @solanaspáis The next level is pic.twitter.com/0KljKm11sr
—Austin Federa | text (@Austin_Federa) July 28, 2022
IRL @solanaspaces next level pic.twitter.com/0KljKm11sr
– Austin Federa | text (@Austin_Federa) July 28, 2022
The Solana Foundation helped fund the launch of the store with a grant, but all tutorials are sponsored by an ongoing project on the blockchain. Among others, Stepn, Orca, Solana Pay, Metaplex and Magic Eden currently host in-store tutorials. Customers earn NFT for completing a tutorial.
As Solana Spaces launched its first branch on Thursday, Norby revealed that the virtual store was being developed alongside other physical stores. He also said that he wants to eventually have boutiques in every country in the world.
Also read: Solana is ‘more decentralized than people think’, but that’s not all
Solana is expanding access to its network through the new store and a new Android mobile device called Saga. Cointelegraph reported on June 24 that the response to the new phone was generally positive, with one person even calling Web3 an “iPhone moment.”
