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Former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts has only been at the helm of Apple Retail for three short weeks, but a new report claims the latest veep plans to shake up the future of Cupertino’s brick-and-mortar stores in a number of ways.
9to5Mac published an exhaustive look at Apple’s retail endeavors on Monday, attempting to shed some light on how newly installed vice-president Angela Ahrendts plans to shape the company’s direct sales moving forward.
Although Ahrendts only started in early May, the executive has spent the last three weeks visiting retail stores and getting caught up with store managers. The retail VP is now expected to start acting upon a three-prong attack for the near future.
“An emphasis on China, mobile payments, and completely revamping the end-to-end Apple Store sales experience,” the report elaborated, which includes shaking things up at the top branches of Apple’s retail executives.
A renewed focus on the Chinese market is something of a no-brainer: Anyone who follows Apple’s quarterly earnings can see that’s where the real profit growth lies, and where China is concerned, Cupertino has nowhere to go but up. Ahrendts apparently hopes to increase Apple’s retail presence from the current 10 stores to 30 locations by 2016.
Perhaps the more interesting part of the story is Ahrendts’ fascination with mobile payments, which ties in neatly with the “major focus” she hopes to put on “blurring the lines between Apple’s online and physical stores” to “improve the overall experience for Apple customers.”
By all accounts, Ahrendts was quite successful at revamping London-based Burberry during her tenure as CEO there, and Apple CEO Tim Cook has praised the new retail VP for her “focus on innovation” as well as sharing the same values already present inside Cupertino.
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