“Retail is not dying, but it has to evolve. It has to continue to move and I think it has to serve a bigger purpose than selling, because anybody can do that faster, cheaper.” So said Apple’s senior vice president of retail, Angela Ahrendts, at the recent Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
In order to progress retail at Apple, Ahrendts started with an analogy. She pictured Apple Retail not as a channel to market but as “Apple’s largest product.” Instantly, that perspective elevates the retail space to a higher plane – demanding the same kind of care and intention as goes into the design and manufacturing of, say, an iPhone. The store is no longer a place to buy products – it is the product. To expand on the premise, “the hardware is the architecture of the store, the software is what happens inside the store,” Ahrendts explained to a crowded room at the Cannes Festival.
Ahrendts has a knack for thinking laterally in retail, and making a connection between the physical and the digital. In her previous role as CEO of Burberry, Ahrendts flipped the idea of what a store could be, with Burberry’s Regent Street flagship, which opened in 2012. Through intensive and imaginative use of digital, “walking through the doors is just like walking into our website,” enthused Ahrendts.
By putting particular focus on the “software” in retail, Apple earned the coveted Grand Prix for Brand Experience and Activation at the Cannes Festival, the communication industry’s highest creative accolade.
The award celebrated “Today At Apple,” a program launched in May 2017 that offers interactive classes at stores worldwide. Sixteen thousand learning sessions are held weekly in over 500 Apple stores globally – covering diverse areas including photo and sketch walks, music labs, kids hours and coding.
As my fellow Forbes contributor, Pamela N. Danziger noted: “The concept behind ‘Today at Apple’ is simple, but profound.” Much more than just a few additional classes in how to use Apple products and programs, “Today at Apple” involves interactive learning sessions that unleash creativity and productivity in new and inspiring ways. It’s beyond “how to” to “what if?”
"Our whole concept was: How does the store become more like a town square? …almost a community hub," said Ahrendts. Reimagining the store “software” required rethinking layout and roles. One-third of the store is now devoted to “Today at Apple.” Each store features a “forum” in front of a large digital screen. Trees in and around the forum reinforce the idea of a town square.
New, more highly-trained Apple team members called “Creative Pros” conduct the sessions – and in some cases, famous artists take over. For example, Hip-hop legend RZA led an “Art of Beatmaking” session at Apple Brooklyn.
The “hardware” of the stores continues to be taken to a higher architectural level as well. The new Apple Milan, which will open this month, sits beneath an amphitheater, and the entry is a staircase that goes down through the center of a fountain. Apple’s upcoming store on the Champs-Élysées has been designed by Sir Norman Foster, and features a five-story central forum in front of a massive screen. An Apple store in Washington D.C. involves a full, historic renovation of Carnegie Library.
Humanity is a major ingredient in the success of retail at Apple. Store associates are hired for empathy, not sales skills, and told to “enrich people’s lives by telling something they don’t know.” Surveys are conducted to ensure that this is happening. Ahrendts says: “We’re not measuring quantitative things, we want to measure how you feel.”
This is not the first time that Apple has reimagined retail. Back in 2001, when Apple opened its first stores, conventional wisdom in electronics retail was that product should be locked away. Apple challenged that notion. Steve Jobs explained in a store tour video that “…there’s 36 computers on display in this store. Every single one of them is connected to the Internet. So you can go up to any computer and start surfing, go to your personal website, or do whatever you want to do on the Internet.”
That was completely revolutionary and pundits back then predicted the experiment would fail. David Goldstein, then president of consulting firm Channel Marketing Corp., said at the time: “Apple will turn the lights off within two years and will have a very bad and expensive experience.”
Seventeen years later, Apple has opened more than 500 stores, and they are some of the most productive retail environments on earth. Angela Ahrendt’s tenure has enhanced Steve Jobs’ legacy.
What can brands and retailers learn from Apple? The purpose of a store as a place to “store and distribute stuff” is long gone. As Ahrendts stated, that can be done “faster, cheaper” online. A “store” needs to be a storehouse of engaging experiences, ideas and interactions, with a large dose of humanity. And that’s precisely how Ahrendts has set out to remake Apple Retail.
