“Apple publishes data about its ‘retail segment’ which ifoAppleStore.com catalogs,” Horace Dediu reports for Asymco.
Here are some statistics I was able to compute from the data:
• The stores generate over $100k per employee per quarter. In 2010, revenue was $481,000 per employee. This year the average is around $320k excluding the fourth quarter. In 2009 the average revenue for the technology sector was $388k/yr. A retailer like JC Penney generates about $124k of revenue per year per employee.
• The revenue per visit is around $45. There are well over 250 million visits per year (222 million for first three quarters of 2011).
• As that visitor generates more than $45 of revenue, an Apple store employee creates sales at the rate of about $278/hour.
More in the full article, including the usual nice charts, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
Amazing stats!
Being a former Mac Genius myself, I can say without a doubt that everyone in the Apple Store gives 110% every day.
From the employees’ view its showing people how much you love Apple. when I go to Apple stores I end up talking to employees about apple history and products for 30 minutes to an hour.
This probably doesn’t take into consideration the 1/3 (roughly) of the employees whose job isn’t to sell things. Apple stores have Managers, Geniuses, Trainers, inventory people, HR people, visuals specialists, and admins who rarely generate any revenue. So the average revenue for the actual sale person on the floor is probably quite a bit higher.
I’m sure they are mostly excellent hard-working employees, but Apple Store “sales” people do not have to be that great at “sales.” They just need to be helpful, enthusiastic, and courteous, to facilitate the process of Apple products “selling themselves.” Most of the time, the customer has already decided to buy before walking into the store, or they are there to play with something new and intend to buy online to avoid sales tax. And that’s fine, because that’s their job.
Now, someone like an insurance agent has to be really skilled at the “art” of selling to be successful.
ken1w – you are incorrect. Apple Specialists (the “sales” people) should not be taken for granted. They are guided and trained to give each customer a complete solution. Apple products do NOT sell themselves, especially the extras that people don’t like to consider like AppleCare and One to One. There is a lot more depth to working at an Apple store than some may realize.
One thing I wish they would remember to ask is if computer purchasers need any adapters or cables. Twice in the last year I have bought a computer and forgot to get an adapter for transferring data.
Yes, that is always a challenge. For products that “sell themselves” there certainly are a lot of details to cover.
I didn’t say I take them “for granted.” Don’t put words in my mouth. I said they need to be “helpful” to facilitate the sales process, and that takes training, knowledge, a positive attitude, and skill. But they don’t need to try very hard to SELL the main product, which is a Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod. That’s usually the hard part of being a “sales person.” Offering the extras after the sale is made is just “cleaning up.”
I appreciate the fact that they leave me alone when I’m there playing with something, but as soon as I need to check out with a purchase, they are right there within a few seconds with their custom iPod touch. If they acted like a car salesperson, I would not go to the Apple Store. And they are obviously playing attention, because they seem to know when I’m ready to pay (or I actually have a question), usually before I say anything. 🙂
Apologies to you if I misinterpreted the quotes you typed – Apple Store “sales” people do not have to be that great at “sales.” – But I want to stress that the Apple Specialists DO need to be good at sales, and I don’t want their role in the stores to be misrepresented.
Again, they have to be good at “facilitating” the Apple sales process, but I don’t think they need to be that good at “making” the sale (getting the customer’s “buy” decision).
Apple Stores are an important part of the Apple sales process, which starts with creating highly desirable products, with a BIG release event to generate media attention and public interest, followed by clever marketing. By the time the customer gets to an Apple Store, most of them have already decided to buy “it” (Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod). The Apple Store facilitates the last step of the sales process, which is to get the product in the customer’s hands.
You misunderstand how a Mac sale in particular works from the Specialist’s end. You’re right that they don’t need to do much to convince you to buy the product, but convincing them to add Apple Care or One to One is NOT “cleaning up.” if you’re not talking about those solutions until the end of a sale, you’re doing the job wrong. Specialists are evaluated on their percentages for the solutions, not revenue. The idea is to create repeat customers as often as possible. You become a salesman of Apple culture. It’s not a conventional sales position, but would you expect anything less from Apple?
Yes, it is “cleaning up” (and enhancing profit) after the main (most important) buy decision is made. It’s like a car sales person offering an extended warranty or floor mats, after the customers decides to buy the car.
> Specialists are evaluated on their percentages for the solutions.
And that would make perfect sense, because it would be difficult to evaluate them on the absolute number of Macs, iPhones, iPads, and iPods they sell (since that buy decision is usually already made before the customer enters the store).
> It’s not a conventional sales position…
And that’s EXACTLY what I’ve been saying all along. My comments are not negative toward Apple Store employees. 🙂
And Apple is extremely picky. My daughter applied for a position and could have conceivably gone through up to 6 interviews. After a weekend of training and many store hours of shadowing she had her first day “solo” yesterday and loved it.
Happy employees will have an attitude that is infectious and will increase sales as well.
Meanwhile, back at the Microsoft Store, employees are busy practicing ‘squirting’ their tunes for the Sadie Hawkins Line Dance ablum due out by Christmas 2011, 2012, 2013… and busy with their bookies, scalping the concert tickets to the free concert at the next Microsoft Store Grand Opening!
Sounds like the Apple retail store employees help bring in a lot of revenue. Hope they are well compensated for that.
Nope.
Not really. I got paid pretty good for retail, but it is retail after all.
Most MGs stay for about a year and move on to higher paying a position, which what I did.
I did sell quite a bit because customers didn’t see me as as a “salesman” and I would take the time to ask questions about use, budget and such from the perspective of a very long time user and so on. I’d show them cables, push AppleCare (everyone needs it) and let them know we were if they needed anything else.
no -not paid well at all.
my brother applied to work there. it was a bizarre group interview/circus where he was asked his age. that’s illegal BTW
The misuse of statistics can prove just about anything you like,
Apple stores are an essential link for those that want to see or play with something before they buy online.
Apple stores also give customers the warm fuzzy feeling that if something goes wrong they wont have to rely on a technical support phone call ( possibly off-shore where English is a second language),
Both elements add significantly to the sales per employee to a sum greater than the stats would show. And it is this sales per employee mentality that gets you into commission selling mentality. A better marker would be – how long does a customer have to wait to see someone that can assist them ( and that is directly related to footfall at any time of the day)
Stats that other retailers dream about!
who would have expected anything less when speaking about apple