By 2015, the iPad maker could have approx. 200 Apple stores in India selling its products.
Apple plans to dramatically expand the number of stores it will allow to be opened in India over the next couple of years.
According to the India Times, Apple is aiming to triple the number of "exclusive stores" within the country by 2015. The India Times' sources, who presently run a number of Apple's exclusive stores, say that the iPad maker could have around 200 of those locations around India by 2015.
Apple operates its stores a little differently in India than in, say, the U.S. In India, Apple has found 17 franchisees that operate stores that exclusively sell its products. Those stores, referred to as Apple Premium Resellers, are popular destinations for the people in India who need to buy the iPhone maker's products.
In addition to upping the number of exclusive stores, the franchisees told India Times, Apple might expand the number of big-box retailers that sell its products around India.
Apple's India push comes as the company tries to create an even bigger dent in a country that would prove to be a very important battleground within the coming years. Apple CEO Tim Cook has acknowledged his company's difficulties gaining market share in India it accounted for simply a single-digit percentage of handset sales within the country last year and damn most of it on the complicated method of really distributing products to India. That method adds additional prices the company must account for.
Chief among the issues could be India's law that needs all foreign retailers to supply 30 % of their product sales from local firms. In other words, 30 % of the product sold in Apple's own stores must have come from an Indian partner. For a company that depends on China-based corporations like Foxconn to supply its devices, that is a problem.
Apple's solution, therefore, has been to work with franchisees for its Premium Resellers initiative. And it seems it'll be doing so even a lot of in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment