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Apple’s Ahrendts to oversee slew of new China, Italy, U.S. stores as organizational restructuring planned

Seeking to enhance Apple’s retail store divison and bring the customer experience to higher levels, new Apple Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores Angela Ahrendts is planning a fundamental restructuring of Apple’s retail stores as she prepares a series of new store openings across the globe for the second half of 2014 and first half of 2015…

Ahrendts previously informed key staff that she would be shaking up the Apple Retail executive ranks, and this new organizational restructuring further alters how stores are managed. Currently, all Apple Stores are organized into geographical regions. For instance, all stores in the San Francisco Bay Area (plus some stores in nearby states) are a single region while all stores in Texas could be another region.

Ahrendts, say sources briefed on the plans, is aiming to restructure stores based on sales volumes. This means that stores will now be grouped by how much of certain products they sell. This will heighten customer satisfaction and streamline Apple retail operations as now similar stores will have similar leadership and similar promotions. This move is not designed to institute John Browett-likely sales targets, but it is planned to create even more tailored experiences to individual stores.

Last week, in her first official letter to rank-and-file Apple retail store employees, Ahrendts said, “keeping the customer experience as simple as any other Apple product will also be critical as we expand into new markets, integrate our platforms, and develop new technologies,” and her move to further align similar stores based on sales and customer demographics, rather than based on geography, is part of that idea.

Ahrendts started her work at Apple on May 1st, and she has already moved former Apple Stores VP Steve Cano to a new international sales role, promoted international store heads Wendy Beckman and Deny Tuza to larger roles, and she has indicated her plans to revamp the end-to-end Apple Store sales experience, dive into the mobile payments world, and further promote the wants of the Chinese consumer.

Apple Store, Beijing

Besides bringing the tailored Apple Store experience for China to Apple’s other stores across the globe, Ahrendts will oversee the opening of 20 more Apple Stores in China through 2016. According to sources with knowledge of Apple’s store opening schedule for the next year, four new Apple Stores are planned to open in China within the next several months. The Cupertino-based company is planning to open new stores in the regions of Shenyang and Central Hangzhou later this year, and new stores for East Hangzhou and East Chengdu are planned for even later this year or the first half of 2015. Apple already has 10 stores in China, but these new stores will make Apple’s products in what Tim Cook has called Apple’s “hypermarket” even more accessible.

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In addition to new stores in China, Apple is planning to open up a new store in Mestre, Italy as soon later this year (or early next year). The city of Mestre is known as the heart of Venice and has the largest population of any city in the region. This popular, high-profile area will likely be a major boon for Apple Retail.

Of course, Apple is also readying multiple new stores for the United States. Sources say that Apple has begun seeking employees for new stores in Marlborough (Massachusetts), Virginia Beach (Virginia), Trumbull (Connecticut), and Manchester (New Hampshire). The new stores are all planned to open up in the second half of this year or in the first quarter of 2015, and most of them will be inside of malls rather than street locations.

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In the much nearer future, Apple will be opening up a new store in Puerta de Sol, Spain on June 21st. Apple has already put up a banner and a website to promote the store. Various reports also indicate that new stores in Brazil, the Netherlands, and France are under construction.

Ahrendts visited Tokyo last week for the Omotesando store opening, and she promised employees that she will be visiting stores every few weeks. It is to be seen if Ahrendts will make her way to all of the aforementioned major new store openings, but it is abundantly clear that she has significant plans for taking Apple Retail into the future with the support of her colleagues across the globe.

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Comments

  1. Arnold Ziffel - 10 years ago

    Angela, we are so happy you’re on board!

  2. valanchan - 10 years ago

    She could start by making Easy Pay a more relaxed affair. Each time I use it I leave the store with a fear of being tackled to the ground by a security guard.

    • lkernan - 10 years ago

      Me too, i always leave the receipt showing on my phone until i’m away and still feel guilty about walking straight out.

      • True (@Tru139) - 10 years ago

        I always chat with a salesperson on the way out, “I know you got a message, but I’m the guy who bought the earbuds. Funny how I still feel the need to let you know”. Although it seems weird, I think it the app should display a message, “Don’t worry, staff have been notified of your EasyPay purchase and are happy you had success and enjoyed a friction free purchase”

    • andreww500 - 10 years ago

      I usually ask for a bag, so it isn’t really an issue but I also think that it should be more clear that you can literally just walk out of the store now after one quick scan.

  3. Miguel Ortiz - 10 years ago

    Puerta del sol is the center of Madrid. It is not a city!!!!

  4. Taste_of_Apple - 10 years ago

    Reblogged this on Taste of Apple and commented:
    I really think she’s going to oversee a lot of great improvements and streamlined experiences in the Apple store. She seems very passionate and capable of retooling experience and improving on them, unlike Mr. Browett from earlier last year.

  5. If only she could persuade ALL managers of Apple stores to be consistent in their relations with Mac User Groups. As it is, one store might favor their local group and another consider their local User Group as the enemy. (Examples can be supplied).

  6. herb02135go - 10 years ago

    Get rid of the managers and staff at my local store. Nightmare!

  7. Still need an Apple store in my region of the US (Northwest Indiana). At 800,000 or so people in population, you would think we would have a couple Apple stores by now, but nope, none, zero, zilch nothing. Apple needs to spread their stores out better. Some places they are only a few miles apart (????), and none in other areas. Seems strange to completely ignore an entire area.

    And no the Chicago store is not close enough. It’s annoying to get to as well. The other Illinois suburban stores are all too far away.

  8. Andre Stumpe - 10 years ago

    Management today: First reorg! New features, improvements or better customer service – nope. Steve didn’t care about organization. It was only important to deliver the best customer experience. Sorry, lesson NOT learned.