Apple is doing this as the retail industry works out what the post-pandemic future will look like, including consumers who have become accustomed to ordering almost everything online. For Apple, the answer is what helped it through the pandemic, and doubled down on its pre-pandemic strategy of in-store events and experiences beyond shopping.
For example, Express counters that pop up to help customers pick up online orders more efficiently will become a regular feature of more than 500 of Apple’s stores around the world, all of which have reopened from June 14. . The iPhone maker is also adding a new “Creative Studio” program, starting in Los Angeles and Beijing, that aims to teach youth from underrepresented communities how to use Apple products to create music, film and photography. This adds in a wide range of classes depending on the store. Getting customers in touch with Apple more often.
“We’re looking at this moment as a way to really start again and start all over again,” Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of retail and people, told Reuters. Reuters prepared the company to open on Thursday. A new store in the renovated Tower Theater in downtown Los Angeles, Apple’s second new US retail outlet since the start of the pandemic. Apple boomed during the pandemic, reaching $2 trillion in market capitalization in August 2020 and setting records for sales of iPhones and several other categories. One of the weak spots related to retail in its financial results, analysts said, was a slowdown in sales of AppleCare, an appliance insurance plan that’s often an upsell during a store visit but easy for consumers to skip online. Apple also experienced supply chain missteps last year, delivering its iPhone 12 later than last year and saying in April that a global semiconductor shortage would cost it several billions of dollars in sales.
Part of Apple’s retail success amid the closures was streamlining its buy-online, pick-up-in-person process. Apple’s long-standing retail strategy has been to encourage customers to wander into its airy stores to touch and feel their devices. During the pandemic, Apple reworked many stores to have smaller express counters designed to facilitate pickup but still give a personal touch, sometimes online or by phone to set up devices.
“The goal was really for speed, which is very different from what we typically experience in retail stores,” O’Brien said. “We want to make sure they can get into that experience, quickly get the product they want. But we want to make sure we can also have a quick conversation with them to make sure they have That’s everything they need.” As local regulations allow, Apple is returning to individual events and classes at its stores. The “Creative Studios” effort will eventually begin in other major cities, O’Brien said.
Such programs, in addition to courses designed to teach computer coding and other technical skills, are ways for Apple to solidify its brand with consumers between purchases, said Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst at Creative Strategies. “The more they can get you to use the device, the more engaged you are, the more loyal you are going to be,” Milanesi said.
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