Global InformationB8ta information
 | |
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | December 2015 |
| Founders | Vibhu Norby William Mintun Phillip Raub Nicholas Mann |
| Defunct | February 18, 2022 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States |
Number of locations | Standalone: 22 Forum: 1 |
| Website | b8ta |
b8ta was a retail-as-a-service company[definition needed] which serve as presentation centers for consumer electronics and home goods. The company was founded in 2015 by Vibhu Norby, William Mintun, Phillip Raub, and Nicholas Mann.[1] Its first location opened in Palo Alto in December 2015.[2] Companies could pay to rent out space for their product to be displayed inside the locations, along with a tablet that each brand customizes with software.[3] All of the products in stores were on display out-of-the-box and could be touched and demoed. The company also sold the products directly to consumers. Store employees, which the company calls "b8ta testers", assisted customers with demos and product information which is taught to them by companies with products on display. In November 2019, b8ta opened a fashion store named Forum in West Hollywood with the same business model.[4]
b8ta closed its last retail stores in the United States on February 18, 2022, due to low traffic caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and a surge in burglaries.
- ^ Findling, Deborah (1 October 2017). "b8ta, a tech retailer, wants to get consumers excited about retail by letting them try gadgets before they buy". CNBC. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
- ^ McDowell, Maghan (22 September 2017). "B8ta makes "early adopters" out of everyone". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
- ^ Halzack, Sarah (17 December 2015). "B8ta, the new gadget store that is a bet by a Silicon Valley company on brick-and-mortar shopping". The Washington Post. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
- ^ Alcántara, Ann-Marie (17 October 2019). "B8ta Is Moving Beyond Consumer Electronics and Entering Fashion and Lifestyle". Adweek. Retrieved 21 March 2020.