It seems in luxury and retail, everyone is going experiential. And that’s where electric adventure vehicle maker Rivian (RIVN) wants to be.
With a delivery target of 50,000 vehicles this year, the EV-maker sees retail and experiential locations as one way to boost buyer interest and sales, especially in the areas it sees as important — big cities on the East and West Coasts, as well as cities with higher per-capita incomes like Chicago, Denver, and Atlanta.
On Friday, Rivian unveiled its latest concept, which the company calls Spaces, in New York’s trendy Meatpacking District. Think of it as a place where visitors can see Rivian vehicles kitted up with bike racks, overlanding tents, and things like that, along with areas for visitors to lounge and get ideas for outdoor activities via crowdsourced suggestions. The company is also offering merch and items like its super-handy flashlight, the one that usually comes built into its vehicles, for sale.
“There is just something that resonates with people in physical experience,” Rivian senior director of retail, Denise Cherry, said in an interview with Yahoo Finance at the NYC location. “You can see a video and you can hear someone talk about something, but for you to get into the car itself and to touch and feel the materials, and to see how our brand and our mission come to life in physical space, there's just something that really builds a lasting relationship with our customers.”
Cherry says the Spaces — which are coming next to Chicago, Vancouver, and Seattle — are more than a space for interested buyers and pre-order holders, they are also for current owners too. The company plans to hold events for groups like owners' clubs and hold community based-events like pet adoptions to foster stronger ties to the locality where the Spaces exist.
That being said the retail locations need to help the company achieve its goals of profitability in the coming years, and that means sales. Rivian notes that at the end of Q1 2023 the company delivered nearly 30,000 vehicles since the start of production in September 2021, and produced nearly 35,000. Rivian’s target for 50,000 deliveries this year alone is a big one — especially for trucks that start around $73,000.
At the moment, the company isn’t disclosing sales metrics it expects from the Spaces. “I think for us, [physical retail is] really core about building our brand and building our awareness, and eventually, that will lead to ‘top of funnel’,” Cherry said, referring to educating and attracting customers. “But we really want to meet our customers where they are, and get people super excited about being able to touch the product.”
That being said, it's not hard to see the new retail locations easily reaching the “bottom of the funnel,” or buyers in the purchasing stage who would like to test drive vehicles and sit in the driver’s seat before pulling the trigger on a purchase.
The question is whether those retail buyers are enough to move the needle for a company that already has thousands of pre-order holders waiting for delivery.
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Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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