retail

IFO Apple Store reports that Apple is revamping its back-lit in-store photo panels, replacing its signature white-background product shots with visuals inspired by its recent advertising. Out are clean, sterile close-ups of the products, and in are colorful visuals showing what people are doing with the products.

The new graphics were photographed like magazine ads, showing the iPad/iPhone being used in actual situations, complete with their surrounding people and places. Their colors, tone and brightness is much richer and darker than the previous graphics …

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Update #2: AT&T’s official statement: 

AT&T GoPhone prepaid service is now available in Apple Retail stores. Prepaid service is also available for iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 4S in AT&T and Cricket Wireless stores and online at att.com and at cricketwireless.com.

Update: A contact has confirmed that AT&T’s prepaid GoPhone plans are also supported by iPhones at Apple Retail Store locations as we previously reported to expect…

Following our report earlier this month that Apple was preparing to begin selling iPhones with prepaid plans through its retail stores, today T-Mobile confirmed iPhones with its prepaid service can now be purchased and activated in Apple stores across the country.

To go along with the launch, T-Mobile will offer discounts in the form of $50 off the device for prepaid plans and a $50 iTunes gift card for iPhones activated on its Simple Choice postpaid plans.

T-Mobile customers can now purchase and activate an iPhone with T-Mobile prepaid service in more than 250 Apple stores across the nation. In addition, for a limited time, customers who purchase a new iPhone with T-Mobile prepaid service can get $50 off the device, and those who buy a new iPhone with a T-Mobile Simple Choice postpaid plan can get a $50 iTunes gift card.

T-Mobile’s fine print notes: “Must activate device in-store. Limit 1 device per customer. Offer only valid with activation of  $50 or $70 worth of service. Offer subject to change.” That lines up with our earlier report that Apple stores would offer the prepaid iPhones on -T-Mobile’s’ $50/month (1GB LTE data) and $70/month (5GB LTE data) unlimited data plans.
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Apple’s new retail chief Angela Ahrendts has written a blog post on LinkedIn sharing some of the insight she has gathered while making the transition from Burberry to to the Cupertino company. The post opens with advice on how to avoid being overwhelmed with the stresses of a new position:

First: “Stay in your lane.” You’ve been hired because you bring a certain expertise to the team and the company. Try to resist putting additional or undue pressure on yourself trying to learn it all from day one.

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZCfK1ZXyP4#t=641]

Apple’s Lisa Jackson, who joined Apple in June last year to oversee environmental issues from her previous position as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, sat down for an interview this week with Fortune. As you’d expect, the topic of conversation was all things environmental issues at Apple and Jackson talks about many of the accomplishments the company recently announced for Earth Day. In addition to just stats and Apple’s renewable energy initiatives— Apple’s supply chain is responsible for 60% of its footprint— she also gives some hints at what Apple plans to improve in the future.

Jackson noted that Apple has more work to do getting renewable energy to all of its retail stores, but said its working hard to overcome some of the challenges and reach 100% renewable energy:
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Apple is in the process of updating the iPod touch units used by Apple Store employees as a mobile point-of-sale system to the iPhone 5s, according to sources familiar with the roll out. 

Apple first started using its iPod touch as an “EasyPay” system for employees in its retail stores back in 2009 and currently uses 4th gen iPod touch or previous models for staff. It uses a point-of-sale attachment for the iPod touch that adds a magnetic stripe reader, barcode scanning functionality, and more. It’s not clear the exact motivation behind Apple’s move to the iPhone after long using the iPod touch, but the device does provide a few advantages. 
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According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal (citing e-commerce trade publication Internet Retailer), Apple has managed to overtake Staples and claim the number-two spot in the world of online retail. Apple’s online sales data jumped a significant 24% last year, although this jump is mostly due to the fact that Internet Retailer now includes the company’s online hardware sales along with digital download data from iTunes and the App Store and doesn’t seem to reflect an actual sales increase of that magnitude.

Essentially what that means is that Apple could actually have been sitting in the #2 spot for some time now, but simply wasn’t recognized as such because Internet Retailer previously excluded sales of iPhones, iPads, iPods, Macs, Apple TVs, and other hardware processed through the company’s online store.

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Angela Ahrendts has officially taken the reins of Apple’s new Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores. Ahrendts’s last day as the CEO of Burberry was yesterday, and Apple’s website has been updated to reflect Ahrendts beginning her work at Apple today. Her biography, which can be found on Apple’s executive leadership website, explains her role at Apple:

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Ahead of Earth Day celebrations planned for tomorrow, Apple today has completely revamped its environmental site with new stats alongside announcements for initiatives planned for the year to come. It also gave an interview with its new head of environmental issues Lisa Jackson. If you don’t want to dig through and read the multiple pages in Apple’s updated report, below we’ve put together a roundup of all the numbers and initiatives Apple announced today:
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After becoming a Dame of the British Empire in a ‘low key’ ceremony earlier this month, rumor had it that Apple’s new retail chief Angela Ahrendts would be leaving her CEO position at Burberry this month. Apple has never confirmed as much apart from saying Ahrendts would start in the spring back in its original announcement, but today reports claim Ahrendts might stick around at Burberry a little longer. The Guardian reports that while Ahrendts is free to leave after serving her 6 months notice and helping transition in a new CEO, she could earn as much as an £8m or $13.5m bonus if she stays at Burberry through June:
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Today, Condé Nast’s Epicurious becomes the latest to take advantage of iBeacons in-store by teaming up with inMarket to beam location-based notifications and offers to shoppers in retail environments. I previously wrote about inMarket,  an in-store marketing platform that recently started rolling out iBeacons to retailers (mostly grocery stores), when it announced Zatarain’s would become the first consumer packaged goods brand to use the platform. The company was using inMarket’s Mobile to Mortar (M2M) platform to beam notifications and offers directly to shopper’s smartphones when in proximity of one of inMarket’s in-store iBeacons. Today the company is announcing its biggest news yet after recently expanding into New York, Boston, and Miami with the addition of Condé Nast’s Epicurious as the first major app partner to take advantage of the M2M iBeacon platform. 
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In the recent past, customers who purchased an iPhone directly from the Apple Online Store and in Apple Retail Stores have had 30 days to return the device for any reason. The only stipulation was that it had to be undamaged and include all of the original accessories. According to an internal document provided by one of our retail sources, Apple plans to change its iPhone return policy to just 14 days beginning on March 13th. However the return policy currently published on Apple.com already reflects this change. All other products purchased from Apple are already subject to a 14 day return policy.

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Re/code reports that the city of San Francisco has finally granted Apple permission to begin work on its iconic new Union Square retail center, which the company has said will be “more iconic than the glass cube in New York City.” The store, pictured in the rendering above, has been in the works for almost a year as the city insisted upon various changes to preserve historic elements and allow for improved accessibility.

The store will replace Apple’s existing Stockton Street location, adding about fifty new jobs in the process. Apple’s new building will feature a two-floor design with 23-foot glass sliding doors and a plaza behind the store that will be shared with the hotel next door with free Wi-Fi to visitors.

The iconic Ruth Asawa fountain behind the store will be relocated (slightly) to accommodate the design of the plaza, which caused some concern among members of the city’s planning commission, though Apple has assured the city that the fountain will be entirely preserved during the process.

More renderings of the gorgeous new store can be found below:

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Apple is planning to change up retail in India in a big—and small—way, according to a report by The Economic Times. According to the Times, Apple plans to open a collection of small, iOS-centric stores. The stores will be setup by local distribution partners, not by first-party retail staff. While the main focus of these locations will be on mobile devices, Apple’s other offerings will also be represented to some degree in each store.

In fact, the focus of these stores will not even be Apple’s latest devices, according to the report. Instead, these local shops will focus on the less-expensive models that Apple offers, including the iPad 2 and iPhone 4s. Macs and other products in these smaller stores will also be lower-priced models. The goal of the local establishments seems to be to place Apple’s most affordable products as close as possible potential customers—a neccessary move if Apple is to continue gaining ground in the country.

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Apple quietly updated the retail section of its website today with a new look that more closely resembles iOS 7. Where the previous version of these pages used content boxes, borders, textured backgrounds, and gradients, the new page instead utilizes ample whitespace and thinner typefaces.

The change is probably best illustrated on the section’s home page, where images previously constrained by content boxes now fill the entire page. On the “Learn” page, buttons with heavy gradients have been replaced by thinly-outlined, lighter versions of the previous design. Gradient-filled headers have disappeared from every page, now replaced by unadorned text.

Oddly, the “Make a Reservation” button that allowed users to quickly create a Genius Bar appointment has been removed from the site’s navigation. Appointments can only be made by navigating to the Genius Bar page and clicking a link in the first paragraph of that page’s content. The Concierge page has not been updated to the new design yet.

You’ll find a bunch of before-and-after comparisons and take our poll on the new design below:

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According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple has promoted its Vice President of Global Retail Stores Denise Young Smith to a new position as head of human resources for all of Apple. Smith previously lead HR for retail and replaces the old head of human resources, Joel Podolny, who Apple says will now “focus full-time on Apple University.” Interestingly, in Apple’s statement it noted that “Apple University is an increasingly important resource” and that Podolny will focus “full-time on developing and scaling the University.”

Apple provided the comment below to Bloomberg on Smith’s new position, noting the promotion “will expand her role to lead Apple’s worldwide human resources organization.” The full statement from Apple below:
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Apple has been developing a sensor-laden, fitness- and medical-focused wearable computer as indicated by several notable recent hires and information we have received from sources.

New Apple hires on both the senior executive and standard engineering levels have expertise in fashion, wearable product industrial design, retail, blood-reading sensors, medical device product management, hardware engineering, software vision, and fitness.

As the rumored launch of the “iWatch” approaches, we have compiled an up-to-date list (into categories of leadership, fashion, fitness, and health) of all known and pertinent recent Apple hires to provide a clearer picture of what Apple’s future wearable technologies could offer to consumers…

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The San Francisco city planning commission voted today in favor of accepting the new Apple Store in Union Square, which an Apple spokesman said would be “a flagship” store that would become “more iconic than the glass cube in New York City.”

The changes announced today include moving the historic fountain outside the new location to center it in the resized plaza. According to Apple’s architect, the fountain will be moved in one piece rather than disassembled and rebuilt a few feet away from its current position. Apple’s previous plan to relocate the fountain was not satisfactory to the city’s historic preservation committee, but the new plan was accepted this week.

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A set of new renderings of the proposed Union Square Apple retail location was presented to the San Francisco Planning Department this week that show an updated design for the store’s entrance. The new renders depict the store with massive 23-foot wide sliding glass doors (which measure nearly 45 feet tall each) that a large section of the storefront to open to the street.

Regular-sized doors on either side of the larger ones will allow customers to come and go if the main doors are closed.

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