Thursday, May 19, 2011

Apple: A Decade of Retail Revolution



On May 19, 2001, the first Apple stores opened (more or less simultaneously) in Tysons Corner, Virginia and the Glendale Galleria. While the stores were eagerly awaited, they were also greeted with some understandable skepticism. Gateway had notably flamed out in retail, having to close all of their stores and Sony had been flip-flopping with a retail strategy during this same time period as well.

One of our favorite quotes on Apple’s retail strategy comes from a story headlined: Sorry Steve, Here’s Why Retail Stores Won’t Work. The story explains in some detail why getting into retail is a bad idea and ends with a quote from David A. Goldstein, who states, "I give them two years before they're turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake".

Unfortunately, for us, David had some company. In our Retail Watch newsletter from July of 2001, we extol on the virtues of how cool the stores, saying “it helps that Apple’s stuff is cool itself—their product design is second to none and showcased within this amazing new environment”. Unfortunately, we also go on to say, “It will be very hard to ever make any money”. Oops.

So, how are the Apple stores doing? Well, we were only a few billion dollars off when assessing future profitability! In fact, the stores are obscenely profitable—300 stores Internationally, and over $2 billion in profits on $9 billion in sales. More to the point, they are one of the few branded retail stores (Nike and Coach join the ranks) that succeed in both elevating the image of the overall brand while delivering high levels of profitability.


Other numbers are equally astounding:

• Sales per square foot, a key measure in a retailer’s productivity, are estimated at around $5,000 per square foot! No one else in retail even comes close.

• Traffic counts are equally amazing, particularly in such a condensed space. Apple is averaging 15,000 customers per week in their stores, which is extraordinary given the compact store size.


Now, since we owned up to a “slightly” off prediction on Apple’s retail prospects, we also want to point out that it is a radically different company today than in 2001 (here comes the mea culpa):

• In 2001, Apple was a relatively small computer seller with a 3% market share. We still maintain that those margins on computers and the relative difficulty of the computer sales cycle does make selling "computers" profitably a daunting experience. Apple was “only” a $5 billion company back in 2001.

• Apple is now a huge consumer products retailer. Selling iPods, iTouches, iPhones and the like, in droves, is a very efficient retail proposition, accompanied by higher (and controlled) margins. The relative levels of profitability (and overall revenues) sky-rocketed once this shift took place. For history’s sake, the first iPod debuted in October of 2001 while the country was pre-occupied with post 9/11 matters. In 2011, Apple could well hit $100 billion in total revenues. Wow!

So, it becomes a classic "chicken and egg" dilemma. Could have Apple ever been a successful retailer without the dramatic introduction of game changing products like the iPOd? Conversely, would those products ever had a chance to shine without dedicated retail distribution?

The flipside of Apple’s retail success is that it has encouraged a number of other companies to follow suit. Few, if any (though we’re careful NOW not to make sweeping predictions) will ever come close to reaching Apple’s success: A rare combination of brand, product and an extraordinary retail experience came together to forge this remarkable game-changing retail story. Most companies will find themselves lacking in one or all of these areas.

There are rumors that version 2.0 of Apple retail is on the way. We can't wait.


1 comment:

  1. So much for retail forecasting. Apple continues to have an uncanny knack for really understanding consumer and shoppers. Maybe we all should drink more of their 'kool-aid.'

    ReplyDelete