Apple Stores to showcase a new retail experience to Indian customers, hoping to make the right ‘connections’

With Apple opening its first retail store in Mumbai later this month, followed soon after by another store in Delhi, the world’s most valuable tech company is digging deeper into the Indian market, as its strategy to control every aspect from sales to manufacturing here starts to show dividends. The retail footprint is just the beginning of a new phase of growth for Apple in India.

Using glass for the store’s façade makes the outlet look open and spacious, thereby inviting customers to enter. The view inside the Apple Store at the Dubai Mall. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

The two retail stores — the flagship one coming up in Mumbai’s Jio World Drive Mall and the second one in Delhi’s Saket — will be at par with other Apple Stores the company operates in major locations such as Dubai, London, New York and Singapore. Both stores will have spaces for classes and meetings, new screens and hardware, and “Genius groves,” a tree-lined area to sit and more Apple customer service specialists to solve customer issues. The stores will also hold “Today at Apple” public in-store sessions, a more in-depth series of programmes and training modules in its stores going beyond teaching users the basics of using Apple hardware and software. What it won’t have are queues, at least not inside the stores, as Apple Stores bill and sell where the customers are, with no dedicated counters for the same.

“They are a place where everyone is welcome — and there is something powerful about people coming together in person,” O’Brien describes the Apple Store. But it’s the “connection”, as she likes to say, that makes Apple Stores so special.

Apple opened the first company-owned retail stores in 2001 at Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia, and the Glendale Galleria in California. At the time, the decision to launch its own retail stores had not gone down well with its critics but Jobs stood by the decision. While many thought, Apple was trying to become a computer retailer, Jobs’ intentions were more visionary in nature. “Rather than just hear about megahertz and megabytes, customers can now learn and experience the things they can actually do with a computer, like make movies, burn custom music CDs, and publish their digital photos on a personal website,” he said.

The Apple Store is housed inside the iconic Grand Central Terminal in New York. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

Two decades on, Apple may be one of the world’s most successful retailers, but the basic premise to offer unique experiences to the different types of consumers, whether “old school” or “new school” continues to differentiate Apple Stores from any large electronics retailers that sell you tech products.

With over 500 physical stores present across the world, Apple doesn’t necessarily expect consumers to buy the latest iPhones, iPads, Macs and accessories every time they cross the thick glass panels that are sort of symbolic of most of these stores. The whole idea behind the Apple Store is to walk around, check out the products, chat with the specialist, attend sessions, and walk out without buying anything. For O’Brien, the retail store is like another Apple product with the goal to offer the best possible experience to consumers.

“Apple Stores are so much more than just a shop… they are about extolling the brand values, presenting the products in a unique way and reinforcing key elements like design, usability, premium materials and more,” explains Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight.

The location is critical for any store and so does the interiors. Visitors seen outside the Apple Store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

India has had Apple Premium Resellers for years but lacked an official Apple retail outlet with its trademark architecture, minimalistic styling and helpful staff. But what the Apple Stores brings is the brand aesthetic wrapped in the store design and layout, the interiors and a subtle and thoughtful curation of Apple products and services in a space that allows consumers to see the story Cupertino wants them to see. It is this curated experience that ushers consumers to explore the products and make purchase decisions.

The two stores also underline how India has become an attractive growth market for Apple, especially with the changes in government policy that allow international brands to enter the market directly. Cupertino’s confidence has also been bolstered by the performance of its iPhones which dominate the high-end of the smartphone market bringing in more profits per unit than any of its competitors. Apple is also ramping up manufacturing efforts in India as it moves away from dependence on China.

As Wood observes, the decision to open an Apple Store in any country is preceded by years of deliberations and thinking. Apple’s India stores can be used as a “marketing vehicle to drive interest and reinforce the premium brand attributes”. Apple smartly uses its stores as a focal point to attract new customers and accelerate growth in all the markets it opens in. “An Apple Store provides a focal point for the brand, the products and Apple’s perception in a market,” Wood sums up.