Two Apple Stores within weeks… Apple gears up for unprecedented retail push in India

During Apple’s annual shareholder meeting in 2020, CEO Tim Cook said he did not want “somebody else to run the brand for us” in India. But Apple’s plans to open the store in BKC in 2021 got derailed due to the pandemic. Though there are many aspects to launching a physical store, it is learnt that this time the process is mostly on track.

“India has been on Apple’s radar for over 10 years but recent political and economic changes in the country now make it possible for Apple to open its first store and begin selling and marketing their products to customers in this nation,” analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies told indianexpress.com.

For years, Indians have been travelling to Dubai or Singapore to buy Apple products from Apple’s flagship stores but that’s going to change soon. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

Apple stores focus on customer experience, not the selling

For years, Apple’s retail partners have been operating third-party stores across big and small Indian cities, but the experience does not compare to that of its flagship stores in New York, 5th avenue, London’s Regent Street or Singapore’s Marina Bay. Apple’s Stores are some of the most successful retail outlets in the world and are hugely profitable.

Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs opened the first Apple Store in Virginia in 2001 and while many predicted them to fail, the strategy to open company-owned stores became a retail success, later recreated by others. Apple now has over 500 retail stores, with the majority of them in the US, followed by China.

Consumers can still walk into a high-street retailer and purchase an iPhone or iMac, but Apple’s own retail stores are less about selling you a product and more about building connections with its loyal users. These stores, which Apple often refers to as “town squares”, have specialists who are highly knowledgeable about products to help users before they buy. There is the Genius Bar concept where Apple users get technical support about the products, the forum (centre of the store with a large screen) where regular community events and sessions with experts are held and the boardroom to help developers get the most out of the software and products.

The iPhone could be a key to Apple’s domination in India. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/Indian Express)

iPhone to drive Apple story in India

The iPhone is a premium product, even more so in India, where most people can’t afford the latest smartphones from Apple. The image of Apple as a luxury tech company makes its products more desirable. The craze of the iPhone may have started to peak globally. But India remains among the few markets where the growth opportunity is immense. Opening retail stores in India is tied to Apple’s grand ambitions to penetrate deeper into India, where young ‘aspirational’ consumers are splurging on iPhones.

The demand for iPhones is, in fact, booming in India which also happens to be the world’s second-largest smartphone market. The iPhone dominates the premium smartphone segment in India, and although Apple’s market share hovers at just around 5 per cent of the overall smartphone market as per various reports, Cupertino is benefiting from the rising disposable household incomes in India.

October last year, research firm Canalys said Apple was the only leading vendor to grow by 8 per cent in the Indian market. Apple reached its highest Q3 market share in the country on the back of sales of the iPhone 13 and the newly launched iPhone 14 series.

An Apple Store in Brooklyn, New York. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

Supply chain diversification will help India

But India is not just a big consumer market for the American giant, but also strategically important for setting up the manufacturing base due to a stable political regime. With Apple facing major challenges in China, home to the “iPhone city” and a major manufacturing hub, Cupertino’s ties with Beijing have taken a hit.

New Delhi is pitching India as an alternative and is luring Apple to bring more manufacturing to the country with a population of over a billion people. Apple began assembling iPhones in India a few years ago, signalling efforts to diversify its supply chain beyond China. With the iPhone 14, its latest iPhone model produced locally and exported to other markets, India’s place as a manufacturing hub for Apple is gaining ground.

“Even though their [Apple] stores typically get thousands of customers a day, that’s not enough to directly impact their market share in India,” said Kieren Jessop, research analyst at Canalys. “Instead, it shows their commitment to the market and the success they’ve recently been having there.”