Despite this, they will feature the familiar Apple Store look and feel, and be manned by staff trained by Apple.
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As of now, Apple operates through premium resellers in the country, with these brands opening up separate Apple stores of their own to sell those products. The pilot program will involve six prime locations, five in Mumbai alone that will create a store-within-a-store Apple experience with the traditional Apple wooden tables and full range of products. The remaining one will be located in Jayanagar in Bengaluru.
Apple has entered a partnership with electronics chain Croma and the Tata-owned store will be now flashing Apple devices.
Interestingly, the design, furniture, fixtures and lighting of the stores will be just like what is found in Apple stores globally. Apple devices are also available in India via multi-brand retail chains and e-commerce websites.
Apple has been trying hard to expand its market share in India but hasn’t been able to set up its iconic stores because of mandatory local-sourcing norms for single-brand foreign direct investment in retail so far.
This new wave of retail presence in India could coincide with the rumored release of the Apple Watch in India. Considering that Croma has 97 stores across the country with 3.8 million customers – there’s obviously a lot of headroom for expanding the store-within-a-store program over the next few years if the initial stores prove to be successful. It’s also accelerated the launch of new phones. Apple is officially launching the iPhone 6s and the 6s Plus in the country later this week with pre-orders already going live.
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Apple sold 1.7 million iPhones in India between October 2014 and September 2015, the company’s financial year, compared with 1.1 million units earlier, according to market tracker sources.
