Apple: America's best retailer Group Members : Mark Cain Evan Kuenzli Chik M Tam, Tammy

Why have Retail Stores?  In 2000, the company was increasingly dependent on mega retailers.  Retailers have little incentive, never mind training, to position Apple's products as anything unique.  This caused Apple to open up their own retail store, where they have creative control in selling and marketing of their products.

Action taken  Invite Mickey Drexler to join Apple's board.  Hire Ron Johnson to run Apple’s retail.  Design the store as if they were designing a product.  Build a trial version of store or prototype.  Apple Store Version 0.0 took shape in a warehouse near the Apple campus.

How was the first store created?  A product oriented version 0.0 store was designed, but they changed the idea of the store.  They asked people about best service experiences they ever had.  The store design changed from product oriented to only using a quarter of the space for product display. The rest was arranged around interests: photos, videos, kids, problems and the Genius Bar.

Design of the Apple Store: Genius Bar  Inspired by customer’s comments on the best service experience in a hotel’s concierge desk.  Put a bar in stores. But instead of dispensing alcohol, it dispenses advice.  Customer’s get tutorial and advice on products.

Design of the Apple store (con’t)  The interiors, a minimum of elements are used: glass, stainless steel, and wood.  Newest stores are missing check out counters and instead use Easy Pay, a system developed by Apple to let salespeople wander the floor with wireless credit-card readers.

Store on 5th Avenue Manhattan  32-foot glass cube that serves as the entrance  100 Macs and 200 iPods for customers to try  the largest selection of iPod accessories of any store  45-foot combined Genius Bar, iPod Bar and Studio for technical support.

How successful is the Store  The Manhattan Store generates $4032 per square foot per year.  Best Buy generates $930 per sq ft  Tiffany generates $2666 per sq ft  Average 50,000+ visitors per week

References   rchive/2007/03/19/ /index.htm rchive/2007/03/19/ /index.htm rchive/2007/03/19/ /index.htm     ue_Store_Opens_Friday/ ue_Store_Opens_Friday/ ue_Store_Opens_Friday/