“Not a cash register is in sight. The electronics on display are all powered up and ready for use. Personal trainers, specialists and newly minted concierges in aqua blue shirts make the Apple Store feel part salon, part Internet cafe — just without the espresso,” May Wong reports for The Associated Press.
“Over the past year, Apple has revamped its 201 stores, changing the layout, adding services and increasing its staffing. The ‘concierge’ service that Apple launched last week is only the latest initiative designed to draw more visitors and bolster already record-breaking sales,” Wong reports.
“Clipboard-carrying concierges greet customers at the door to direct them to the right section of the store or to the personal shopper or trainer with whom they had made an appointment. Several others mill the floor in case someone has a question or is ready to buy an iPod, an iPhone or a Macintosh computer,” Wong reports. “With cash registers removed, a common question nowadays is, ‘Where do I pay?’ The store employee would instantly reply, “Right here,” and whip out a portable scanner from a hip holster.”
“Apple started eliminating checkout areas at stores last year and has now finished arming each store employee with handheld scanners for faster transactions,” Wong reports. “That has freed up space for shiny wares or one-on-one consultations. The 11-foot counter used in the past for the ‘Genius Bar,’ the in-store technical support section, has been extended to about 35 feet per store.
Even without cash registers “sales are flying high,” Wong reports. “The retail stores hosted more than 100 million visitors and produced about $4.2 billion in revenue in Apple’s fiscal year that ended in September, up nearly 24% from $3.4 billion the previous year — in line with the Cupertino-based company’s overall sales growth.”
“Apple has sold more than 120 million of its market-leading iPod digital media players, introducing millions of people to Apple’s design aesthetics,” Wong reports. “Apple says that more than half of the computers sold at Apple stores are to people new to the Macintosh platform. After hovering for years with a 2% to 3% share of the PC market in the United States, Apple’s slice has now grown to 8%, according to market researcher Gartner Inc.”
Full article here.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t once again bring you David Goldstein’s May 2001 prediction regarding Apple Retail Stores, “I give them two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake.”
Hi George. In the past I have purchased from the Seattle U. Village store from the easy-pay associates and found it very acceptable, although different from the normal queue to the POS register experience. However, since my iPhone had been stolen, I had questions I wanted to ask but I didn’t feel that it was appropriate for me to do so because that particular sales person performing the transaction had other people waiting to make their purchases. I hate being behind someone taking too long to check out and I was certainly not going to be one.
Last week I went to the Bellevue Apple store to buy a new Mini on Black Friday. This store was packed, which I expected, and I was helped by a very nice sales person with an easy-pay. Unfortunately, this time an aggressive Mommy and her 3 kids kept trying to take the associate away from finishing my transaction and pay attention to helping them instead. Had there been a line to the POS register, she would have queued up and waited her turn and not been tempted to push me out of the way.
So that makes my 2nd major purchase at an Apple store that was needlessly stressful due to the elimination of the POS registers. I realize that I went shopping at probably the busiest times of the year, but clearly this system breaks down when there are lots of people in the store. That’s why I think Apple needs to rethink this plan and add counter registers for times when heavy traffic is anticipated.
I absolutely hate the no register setup at Apple stores. It’s being different just for the sake of being different.
That being said< I still love the Apple stores for the most part, and here’s an oldie but a goodie on the future of Apple stores, circa 2001.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_21/b3733059.htm