Mikey Campbell
In a leaked internal memo sent to Apple Store employees on Tuesday, retail chief Angela Ahrendts asks her employees to help change customer opinion that Apple product launches come standard with long lines, constrained channel supply and low in-store inventory.
The note, obtained by Business Insider, reveals Ahrendts is asking employees to steer customers away from brick-and-mortar Apple Stores and toward the Online Apple Store for the upcoming Apple Watch and MacBook releases, a marked change from Apple's most recent device debuts.
Ahrendts' strategy appears to be borne by a pragmatic need to ensure customers that Apple's colossal supply and distribution channels can handle what is normally strong launch day demand. For Apple Watch, Apple's perceived late entry into the wearables market, coupled with expectedly slick advertising, has made consumers frothy.
Get in line online
The days of waiting in line and crossing fingers for a product are over for our customers. The Apple Store app and our online store make it much easier to purchase Apple Watch and the new MacBook. Customers will know exactly when and where their product arrives.
This is a significant change in mindset, and we need your help to make it happen. Tell your customers we have more availability online, and show them how easy it is to order. You'll make their day.
Sources told the publication that initial in-store Apple Watch supply will indeed be limited, as anticipated by an AppleInsider source. In store pickup will supposedly not be offered in the UK, though the option appears to be open to U.S. customers.
Demand for Apple's first foray into wearables is predicted to drive one million unit sales over its first weekend of sales, a number that could approach 2.3 million by June. No matter what statistics the company provides, if any, initial sales are not necessarily a bellwether of platform success or failure.
With high demand and expected supply constraints, those looking to be one of the first to snag an Apple Watch are urged to make reservations through the Online Apple Store when preorders go live just after midnight Pacific time on April 10.
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
59 Comments
A watch? I've been in jail for a year and this is what Cook has come up with? Where the freak is the TV Jobs had mastered?
Ahrendt's is crazy if she thinks that Apple customers don't understand that they can order online and have the order delivered. People want the in-store experience including waiting in line, so they can get some of the first units on the market. Suggesting that it's almost an unknown abut using the Store app or online store suggests to me that she doesn't understand the Apple customer very well. What they might want to do is fully embrace the experience and challenges of in-store product launches and figure ways to get more units on hand or in pop-up locations so the consumer experience isn't negative.
C'mon Angela, you have got to be kidding.
Did you try to get on-line to the Apple Store during the iPhone 6 launch? I know you were in Australia! But let me remind you that after the the on-line Apple Store was AWOL for the first hour(s), it was impossible to get a park on the iPhone 6 store page let alone secure a purchase. I was forced into the queues on launch day just to make sure I had a replacement for my failing prior iPhone.
Of course everything is now honky dory with the web store having enough bandwidth to handle the expected interest, and all's fixed... we hope. Let's see what happens on April 10 at 12.01 PST.
Over to you dearie.
Line waiting is all part of the fun of a new product announcement. Why discourage people from enjoying the hoopla?
[quote name="prokip" url="/t/185624/angela-ahrendts-tells-retail-employees-to-push-customers-online-for-apple-watch-12-macbook-launches/0_100#post_2705220"]C'mon Angela, you have got to be kidding. Did you try to get on-line to the Apple Store during the iPhone 6 launch? I know you were in Australia! But let me remind you that after the the on-line Apple Store was AWOL for the first hour(s), it was impossible to get a park on the iPhone 6 store page let alone secure a purchase. I was forced into the queues on launch day just to make sure I had a replacement for my failing prior iPhone. Of course everything is now [I]honky dory[/I] with the web store having enough bandwidth to handle the expected interest, and all's fixed... we hope. Let's see what happens on April 10 at 12.01 PST. Over to you dearie. [/quote] C'mon yourself. There were over 500 people waiting in line at the Tampa Apple Store all night the night before the iPhone 6 was released. If these sorts of lines get longer, these will be serious logistical nightmares for all concerned. What CAN be expanded and improved is the online store. Perhaps Apple has.