Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Retail is broken. Apple has a plan
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Retail is broken. Apple has a plan
Vogue Business
Despite the recent profits warning, Apple is bolstering its investment in experiential retail, with expansive flagships, and classes and workshops in every store. "When you are serving digital natives, the thing they long for more than anything is human connection."
Big companies have created a "tragedy in retail" by becoming remote from their customers and staff.
Ahrendts urges retailers to rethink their approach: "You can’t just look at the profitability of one store or the profitability of one app or the online business. You have to put it all together: one customer, one brand.”
Angela Ahrendts stands on the snowy steps in front of the former Carnegie Library in Washington, DC. This noble construction, built between 1901 and 1903, and once filled with books, will soon become an Apple store – and something more. Alongside $1,250 iPhones and $130 Apple Pencils, the space will play host to creative workshops, sketching tours of the neighbourhood and author readings that will be live-streamed to other stores around the world.
This is retail, but not as we know it.
As chief executive of Burberry from 2006 to 2014, Ahrendts, 58, proved that a bricks-and-mortar store could appeal to the millennial generation. On London’s Regent Street in 2012, Burberry unveiled what was then hailed as the store of the future: a 44,000-square-foot space of smart mirrors and simulated rain showers.
“We bought 10,000 iPads and put them in the stores and everyone thought that was so revolutionary,” says Ahrendts. “For us it really wasn’t rocket science, we had targeted the millennial consumer and we knew that was the best way to talk to them.” Then, five years ago, she left London for Silicon Valley – and since then has been dreaming up a new vision for retail at one of the world’s largest technology companies.
Retail has never been so in need of reinvention. Since 2017 almost 10,000 stores in the US have closed their doors. Some analysts predict that by 2022 one in four US malls could be out of business. Although 2018 showed some signs of improvement, the twin threat remains: retailers around the world need to find a way to both compete with online shopping and to attract younger, more demanding customers.
It’s easy to look at Apple’s grand new fleet of flagships and be dazzled by their surfaces: the Foster + Partners-designed Champs Élysées store boasts floor-to-ceiling glass, trees in the courtyard, and a preserved carved wooden staircase connecting hyper-modern rooms. But the real difference, Ahrendts claims, is much more fundamental. Apple stores show a vision for retail in the way they help Apple build long-term customer relationships, the way they are financially accounted for and the way they connect a network of 70,000 employees across the globe.
The Apple vision
Since 2015, Apple has opened a series of high-profile flagships to promote its brand, each requiring, in the company’s words, “substantially” more investment than its typical stores. “We are now opening fewer, larger stores so that you can get the full experience of everything that’s Apple,” Ahrendts explains as we pick our way past Carnegie Library’s historic pillars and through concrete and rubble to where a hard-hat brigade are inserting beacons into the walls.
“We don’t talk a lot about it but there are thousands of beacons behind those walls,” she remarks. These location-aware sensors connect with the Apple Store app on iPhones, sending visitors a greeting when they arrive in store, and prompting them to skip the cash register and pay for purchases via the app as they approach the accessories area. (They must opt-in on the app to access these features.) “As we renovate every store we update all of the technology. We don’t want to be gimmicky, but stores need to become living, breathing spaces, not just two-dimensional boxes.”
That is now coming to life at Carnegie Library. “A few years ago I sent...
Despite the recent profits warning, Apple is bolstering its investment in experiential retail, with expansive flagships, and classes and workshops in every store. "When you are serving digital natives, the thing they long for more than anything is human connection."
Big companies have created a "tragedy in retail" by becoming remote from their customers and staff.
Ahrendts urges retailers to rethink their approach: "You can’t just look at the profitability of one store or the profitability of one app or the online business. You have to put it all together: one customer, one brand.”
Angela Ahrendts stands on the snowy steps in front of the former Carnegie Library in Washington, DC. This noble construction, built between 1901 and 1903, and once filled with books, will soon become an Apple store – and something more. Alongside $1,250 iPhones and $130 Apple Pencils, the space will play host to creative workshops, sketching tours of the neighbourhood and author readings that will be live-streamed to other stores around the world.
This is retail, but not as we know it.
As chief executive of Burberry from 2006 to 2014, Ahrendts, 58, proved that a bricks-and-mortar store could appeal to the millennial generation. On London’s Regent Street in 2012, Burberry unveiled what was then hailed as the store of the future: a 44,000-square-foot space of smart mirrors and simulated rain showers.
“We bought 10,000 iPads and put them in the stores and everyone thought that was so revolutionary,” says Ahrendts. “For us it really wasn’t rocket science, we had targeted the millennial consumer and we knew that was the best way to talk to them.” Then, five years ago, she left London for Silicon Valley – and since then has been dreaming up a new vision for retail at one of the world’s largest technology companies.
Retail has never been so in need of reinvention. Since 2017 almost 10,000 stores in the US have closed their doors. Some analysts predict that by 2022 one in four US malls could be out of business. Although 2018 showed some signs of improvement, the twin threat remains: retailers around the world need to find a way to both compete with online shopping and to attract younger, more demanding customers.
It’s easy to look at Apple’s grand new fleet of flagships and be dazzled by their surfaces: the Foster + Partners-designed Champs Élysées store boasts floor-to-ceiling glass, trees in the courtyard, and a preserved carved wooden staircase connecting hyper-modern rooms. But the real difference, Ahrendts claims, is much more fundamental. Apple stores show a vision for retail in the way they help Apple build long-term customer relationships, the way they are financially accounted for and the way they connect a network of 70,000 employees across the globe.
The Apple vision
Since 2015, Apple has opened a series of high-profile flagships to promote its brand, each requiring, in the company’s words, “substantially” more investment than its typical stores. “We are now opening fewer, larger stores so that you can get the full experience of everything that’s Apple,” Ahrendts explains as we pick our way past Carnegie Library’s historic pillars and through concrete and rubble to where a hard-hat brigade are inserting beacons into the walls.
“We don’t talk a lot about it but there are thousands of beacons behind those walls,” she remarks. These location-aware sensors connect with the Apple Store app on iPhones, sending visitors a greeting when they arrive in store, and prompting them to skip the cash register and pay for purchases via the app as they approach the accessories area. (They must opt-in on the app to access these features.) “As we renovate every store we update all of the technology. We don’t want to be gimmicky, but stores need to become living, breathing spaces, not just two-dimensional boxes.”
That is now coming to life at Carnegie Library. “A few years ago I sent...
View all episodes
By Newsbeat RadioVogue Business
Despite the recent profits warning, Apple is bolstering its investment in experiential retail, with expansive flagships, and classes and workshops in every store. "When you are serving digital natives, the thing they long for more than anything is human connection."
Big companies have created a "tragedy in retail" by becoming remote from their customers and staff.
Ahrendts urges retailers to rethink their approach: "You can’t just look at the profitability of one store or the profitability of one app or the online business. You have to put it all together: one customer, one brand.”
Angela Ahrendts stands on the snowy steps in front of the former Carnegie Library in Washington, DC. This noble construction, built between 1901 and 1903, and once filled with books, will soon become an Apple store – and something more. Alongside $1,250 iPhones and $130 Apple Pencils, the space will play host to creative workshops, sketching tours of the neighbourhood and author readings that will be live-streamed to other stores around the world.
This is retail, but not as we know it.
As chief executive of Burberry from 2006 to 2014, Ahrendts, 58, proved that a bricks-and-mortar store could appeal to the millennial generation. On London’s Regent Street in 2012, Burberry unveiled what was then hailed as the store of the future: a 44,000-square-foot space of smart mirrors and simulated rain showers.
“We bought 10,000 iPads and put them in the stores and everyone thought that was so revolutionary,” says Ahrendts. “For us it really wasn’t rocket science, we had targeted the millennial consumer and we knew that was the best way to talk to them.” Then, five years ago, she left London for Silicon Valley – and since then has been dreaming up a new vision for retail at one of the world’s largest technology companies.
Retail has never been so in need of reinvention. Since 2017 almost 10,000 stores in the US have closed their doors. Some analysts predict that by 2022 one in four US malls could be out of business. Although 2018 showed some signs of improvement, the twin threat remains: retailers around the world need to find a way to both compete with online shopping and to attract younger, more demanding customers.
It’s easy to look at Apple’s grand new fleet of flagships and be dazzled by their surfaces: the Foster + Partners-designed Champs Élysées store boasts floor-to-ceiling glass, trees in the courtyard, and a preserved carved wooden staircase connecting hyper-modern rooms. But the real difference, Ahrendts claims, is much more fundamental. Apple stores show a vision for retail in the way they help Apple build long-term customer relationships, the way they are financially accounted for and the way they connect a network of 70,000 employees across the globe.
The Apple vision
Since 2015, Apple has opened a series of high-profile flagships to promote its brand, each requiring, in the company’s words, “substantially” more investment than its typical stores. “We are now opening fewer, larger stores so that you can get the full experience of everything that’s Apple,” Ahrendts explains as we pick our way past Carnegie Library’s historic pillars and through concrete and rubble to where a hard-hat brigade are inserting beacons into the walls.
“We don’t talk a lot about it but there are thousands of beacons behind those walls,” she remarks. These location-aware sensors connect with the Apple Store app on iPhones, sending visitors a greeting when they arrive in store, and prompting them to skip the cash register and pay for purchases via the app as they approach the accessories area. (They must opt-in on the app to access these features.) “As we renovate every store we update all of the technology. We don’t want to be gimmicky, but stores need to become living, breathing spaces, not just two-dimensional boxes.”
That is now coming to life at Carnegie Library. “A few years ago I sent...
Despite the recent profits warning, Apple is bolstering its investment in experiential retail, with expansive flagships, and classes and workshops in every store. "When you are serving digital natives, the thing they long for more than anything is human connection."
Big companies have created a "tragedy in retail" by becoming remote from their customers and staff.
Ahrendts urges retailers to rethink their approach: "You can’t just look at the profitability of one store or the profitability of one app or the online business. You have to put it all together: one customer, one brand.”
Angela Ahrendts stands on the snowy steps in front of the former Carnegie Library in Washington, DC. This noble construction, built between 1901 and 1903, and once filled with books, will soon become an Apple store – and something more. Alongside $1,250 iPhones and $130 Apple Pencils, the space will play host to creative workshops, sketching tours of the neighbourhood and author readings that will be live-streamed to other stores around the world.
This is retail, but not as we know it.
As chief executive of Burberry from 2006 to 2014, Ahrendts, 58, proved that a bricks-and-mortar store could appeal to the millennial generation. On London’s Regent Street in 2012, Burberry unveiled what was then hailed as the store of the future: a 44,000-square-foot space of smart mirrors and simulated rain showers.
“We bought 10,000 iPads and put them in the stores and everyone thought that was so revolutionary,” says Ahrendts. “For us it really wasn’t rocket science, we had targeted the millennial consumer and we knew that was the best way to talk to them.” Then, five years ago, she left London for Silicon Valley – and since then has been dreaming up a new vision for retail at one of the world’s largest technology companies.
Retail has never been so in need of reinvention. Since 2017 almost 10,000 stores in the US have closed their doors. Some analysts predict that by 2022 one in four US malls could be out of business. Although 2018 showed some signs of improvement, the twin threat remains: retailers around the world need to find a way to both compete with online shopping and to attract younger, more demanding customers.
It’s easy to look at Apple’s grand new fleet of flagships and be dazzled by their surfaces: the Foster + Partners-designed Champs Élysées store boasts floor-to-ceiling glass, trees in the courtyard, and a preserved carved wooden staircase connecting hyper-modern rooms. But the real difference, Ahrendts claims, is much more fundamental. Apple stores show a vision for retail in the way they help Apple build long-term customer relationships, the way they are financially accounted for and the way they connect a network of 70,000 employees across the globe.
The Apple vision
Since 2015, Apple has opened a series of high-profile flagships to promote its brand, each requiring, in the company’s words, “substantially” more investment than its typical stores. “We are now opening fewer, larger stores so that you can get the full experience of everything that’s Apple,” Ahrendts explains as we pick our way past Carnegie Library’s historic pillars and through concrete and rubble to where a hard-hat brigade are inserting beacons into the walls.
“We don’t talk a lot about it but there are thousands of beacons behind those walls,” she remarks. These location-aware sensors connect with the Apple Store app on iPhones, sending visitors a greeting when they arrive in store, and prompting them to skip the cash register and pay for purchases via the app as they approach the accessories area. (They must opt-in on the app to access these features.) “As we renovate every store we update all of the technology. We don’t want to be gimmicky, but stores need to become living, breathing spaces, not just two-dimensional boxes.”
That is now coming to life at Carnegie Library. “A few years ago I sent...