Apple opened its first official offline retail store in India last April. The first Apple Store in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai opened its doors to the public on April 18. After which the company announced another Apple Store in Delhi’s Saket area, which was inaugurated just two days later on April 20. These Apple Stores are offering unique customer experiences such as – ‘Today at Apple’, ‘Access to Genius Bar’ and hands-on experience of all Apple products available for sale in India.
And all these marketing and ‘customer experience’ schemes of Apple are encouraging Indian customers to visit and shop at physical Apple stores. We are not making this claim. Rather, the first-month sales reports from both Apple Stores lead us to believe so. Because a recent report claims that the two new Apple stores located in India have managed to generate record revenue, much higher than other leading electronics stores.
According to a latest report by the Economic Times (ET), the first two official Apple stores opened in Mumbai and Delhi in India generated sales of Rs 44-50 crore. The report also claimed that both Apple Stores generated more than double the amount of revenue that a top electronics store in the country can generate except for occasions like Diwali.
For information, last April, Apple CEO Tim Cook himself came to India and inaugurated two Apple Stores located in Mumbai and Delhi. And the Apple BKC store had a billing of over Tk 10 crore on the first day, which is Tk 2-3 crore more than a month’s revenue of a large local electronics store. Apart from the Apple BKC store in Mumbai covering an area of 22,000 sq ft, the smaller 10,000 sq ft Apple store in Saket, Delhi also recorded a similar amount of revenue on its first day. As ET reports, more than 6,000 Indians visited and shopped at both the stores on the opening day.
And so, the Apple Store at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) has already been included among the top 10 stores owned by Apple in terms of global sales. However, it remains to be seen whether the Apple store located in Delhi, including the outlet in question, will generate revenue like April in the coming months or if there will be a slight decline in sales.
However, the Indian Apple Store has already performed better than the expectations of both companies. In this regard an official said that – “Two Apple owned Apple Stores in India have set a new benchmark in terms of ‘per-square foot revenue’ records.” Another industry executive commented that – “Apple’s average-selling-price (ASP) is much higher because the company has achieved such high revenue, and because both new stores still have high footfall, both are selling more products than expected.”
