Samsung launches stores across Europe

SAMSUNG and Carphone Warehouse have announced a collaboration that will see more than sixty new Samsung stores rolled out across Europe.

Samsung and Carphone Warehouse have already launched three dedicated Samsung shops in Spain, and we're guessing that must have been quite successful, with the two firms today announcing plans to open a further 60 outlets across Europe. These will soon start cropping up in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Carphone Warehouse is a major telecommunications retailer in Europe, using the Carphone Warehouse brand in the UK and Ireland, and the Phone House brand elsewhere.

In terms of timescale, you can expect to see these ‘concept’ stores arrive in the next few months and, according to the announcement, they will have a “premium look and feel”, while selling Samsung products exclusively. 

Indeed, the stores will combine Carphone Warehouses’s existing sales tools and platforms, with Samsung-branded tablets to complete sales on the shop floor.

Samsung has said however that the dedicated stores will carry its entire product range, including smartphones, tablets, laptops and wearables, a line that so far consists only of the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch. 

If speculation is to be believed, a second generation smartwatch will soon be joining the lineup, and augmented reality eyewear likely to launch as as Samsung Galaxy Glass is expected to crop up in the Samsung stores later this year.

Carphone Warehouse CEO Andrew Harrison said, "We are delighted to have been chosen as Samsung's preferred European partner for their store rollout.

"Our Connected World Services business will combine Carphone Warehouse's retailing expertise and systems with one of the world's biggest brands and will help us make even more lives better through connected technology."

Samsung already has around 1,400 'Experience Stores' in the United States, which are essentially Samsung kiosks inside Best Buy stores. The company also recently opened a Samsung Experience shop in Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, London.

Playing on the idea of the Apple Genius Bar, these Best Buy stores offer a 'Samsung Smart Service', whereby dedicated 'Samsung Experience consultants' and Best Buy sales assistants help customers to choose, purchase and activate their mobile products.

The stand-alone stores planned with Carphone Warehouse are more of a direct challenge to Apple’s chain of retail stores, which sell Mac computers, iPods, iPads, iPhones, and other consumer electronics such as Apple TV.

As of January 2014, Apple has 432 retail stores in 14 countries, including 37 in the UK.