I invite you to visit the Apple
Store on Regent Street in London
-
The "lost" space is enormous: an "empty" hall, a huge staircase leading to a second level where there are no products on sale .... about 50% of the total area is not dedicated to sales!
-
As for the upper floor, it is fully dedicated to … free service! This includes:
An amphitheatre where you can attend courses on
various Mac software applications.
A "Genius Bar": a counselling and assistance area (by appointment made through the Internet) where "geniuses" help customers to resolve their problems.
The Studio
Providing
advice and assistance to professionals.
Why this decision to break away?
When Steve Jobs decided to open the Apple Stores in 2000, he
observed, "There was a time when the most horrible sales experience was
when you wished to buy a car. Today it is when you buy a computer ... The world does not need another store".
His first goal was to provide solutions to IT visitors and not
thrust them into a world dedicated exclusively to sales: I can therefore touch
all computers installed on tables, surf the web .. I am living an experience with the products and with the brand (try
doing that in France
Although Business Week wrote in May 2001, "I give them 2 years before they're turning
out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake", in 2005, 147
shops generated 17% of turnover, 45% of the buyers came from the PC world and
these stores generated sales of $ 30 000 per sq.m!
Apple is, in my view, the first example of the commerce of tomorrow: a place where the non-commercial and service are brought to the fore, leading to the sale. The brand becomes a provider of solutions.
