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    Tim Cook's recipe may bring Apple products to your neighbourhood stores

    Synopsis

    The strategy is aimed at expanding availability of these Apple products, which are currently sold through exclusive stores and large, high-street electronic retail chains.

    ET Bureau
    KOLKATA: Apple Inc plans to roll out its entire portfolio of products such as the Mac range of computers, iPads and Apple TVs in neighbourhood mobile phone and electronic stores in a new strategy crafted by CEO Tim Cook during his visit to India last week.

    The strategy is aimed at expanding availability of these Apple products, which are currently sold through exclusive stores and large, high-street electronic retail chains. The move is in addition to plans by Apple to set up company-owned stores in select cities.

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    Initially, such products will be sold in the top 500 stores by July-August and subsequently, the distribution will be expanded to smaller cities such as Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Surat, Nagpur and Kanpur, two senior industry executives said. Cook took the decision after visiting retailers to get a firsthand estimate of how much sales take place from multibrand stores.

    Image article boday
    “Still 50-60% of smartphones and computers get sold in India through multi-brand stores and some of the larger outlets even sell the premium ones. Apple will initially target such top-selling stores, which can play a significant role in expanding penetration of Apple products across the range and may play a critical role for its long-term prospects,” one of the people said. An email sent to Apple India did not elicit any response till Tuesday press time.

    Apple India has already started to identify stores, depending on their turnover, location and size and wants to create a dedicated space inside for its products. At the same time, it is identifying smaller markets where it can expand.

    The company’s distribution strategy is being reworked to ensure there is a common price between online and offline stores by appointing dedicated distributors for each region. Apple’s four distributors in India — Ingram Micro, Redington, Beetel-Brightstar and Rashi Peripherals — can currently sell in any region and this often leads to end-consumer pricing discrepancy, executives said.

    During his maiden visit to India last week, Cook told his India team that the planned company-owned Apple Stores will be set up in select cities to create a benchmark for sales and after-sales service and it does not want to disrupt the existing distribution structure, including selling through franchisee-owned exclusive outlets in the country.

    The CEO wants to set up Apple Stores in key metros, where there is a significant young population with high aspirations and disposable incomes. Apple has about 3% share of the Indian smartphone market, although in the premium Rs 30,000-plus segment, it is level with South Korean rival and market leader Samsung Electronics.
    The Economic Times

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