Apple To Customers: Stay Out Of Stores On Launch Day?
By Matt Pillar, chief editor
A “leaked” memo from Apple Retail Chief Angela Ahrendts to Apple store associates made the rounds this week, inciting all sorts of speculation among retail, tech, and business analysts. The memo, first reported by Business Insider on April 7, included this little snippet from Ahrendts, which sent press and pundits into a tizzy:
Get in line online
The days of waiting in line and crossing fingers for a product are over for our customers. The Apple Store app and our online store make it much easier to purchase Apple Watch and the new MacBook. Customers will know exactly when and where their product arrives.
This is a significant change in mindset, and we need your help to make it happen. Tell your customers we have more availability online, and show them how easy it is to order. You’ll make their day.
At the heart of the hype is this far-too-introspective question: Why would Ahrendts and Apple, having invested so much in 450-plus worldwide brick-and-mortar stores and the customer experience those stores create, lay down such an overt directive to send customers online?
The ensuing media discourse coughed up much speculation and plenty of sharp criticism. Most notably, critics say Ahrendts’ shift in philosophy flies in the face of a time-honored tradition that Apple diehards seem to relish; waiting in a long line for 36 hours in hopes of getting their hands on one of the first new units to come off the assembly line. That rite of passage earns Apple enthusiasts a unique distinction. For five minutes or so, they get to play with something cool, something that nobody else has, before it becomes a commodity at minute six. It also earns Apple lots and lots of free product promotion in the form of headlines. The memo from Ahrendts seems to eschew product launch euphoria and all the golden media madness that ensues. That’s just insanity, right?
Let’s stop and think about that for a minute. Do you really think there won’t be tens of thousands of folks camped outside Apple Stores leading up to the April 24th in-store availability of the Apple Watch? Do you think Apple customers will stay home in their jammies because Angela Ahrendts sent a memo?
Ahrendts’ suggestion of the e-commerce alternative is merely that—a suggestion. It certainly won’t diffuse the explosive atmosphere created by Apple product releases. Of course Apple knows that.
It goes without saying that Apple Watch and MacBook availability will be constrained by supply. Sure, Apple doesn’t want to disappoint customers, so Ahrendts is happy to encourage the orderly management of customer expectations. Tell customers that if they’d prefer, they can go ahead and buy online. We’ll let them know when it’s coming. That’s not risky. That’s not philosophically opposed to anything. That’s just customer-centric omni-channel retailing.
It’s also a really nice problem for Apple to have—so much anticipated demand that while every other brick-and-mortar retailer in the world is trying to build foot traffic, Apple is suggesting e-commerce might be a more efficient alternative for consumers.
Also consider that Apple runs 453 brick-and-mortar stores in 16 countries, but its global reach is much wider online, where it serves e-commerce customers in 39 countries. By encouraging a secure and predictable e-commerce experience in conjunction with its upcoming product launches, the company is sending a clear message of confidence to the millions of worldwide customers who don’t even have the option to camp outside a store.
Where customers can shop in a store, Ahrendts’ suggestion that store staff should proactively engage customers about their e-commerce options is a textbook omni-channel play. It’s the kind of instruction and communication that contributes to Apple’s omni-channel prowess.
The memo from Ahrendts wasn’t meant for us to see. I’ll remind my friends in the media that a leaked memo doesn’t equal a scandalous memo. This memo isn’t even juicy, so let’s not read into it too much. Apple is a customer-centric retailer—whether those customers choose to shop for watches on their iPads in their own bedrooms, or whether they choose to sleep next to strangers on a sidewalk to get one. Move along, nothing to see here. Unless you’re seeking to learn from a master.