Finally, the Apple Store is coming to India in the form of counters and will be launching in partnership with Tata-owned consumer electronics chain Croma. In total, there are only six locations as a pilot project now. The Apple Store, will open till Diwali which is next month and the space will be 40-500 squares feet in area. The Apple Store will be set up at five Croma stores in Mumbai – Malad, Juhu, Oberoi Mall, Phoenix Mall and Ghatkopar while in Jayanagar Croma store at Bengaluru. The good thing is that, the Apple Stores will maintain the same global design, furniture, fixtures and lighting and the sales staff employed in these stores and will be trained directly by the company as well.
According to the source,
“We are proud to partner Apple to launch the Apple Store in India and extremely bullish about it. These stores will be modeled on the global design and will offer the best experience to consumers, showcasing the entire range of Apple products.” Avijit Mitra, chief executive officer of Infiniti Retail, which owns Croma, told the publication.”
Due to mandatory local-sourcing norms for single-brand foreign direct investment in retails, Apple hasn’t been able to set up its own stores in India. As of now, in India, Apple sells through premium resellers who run exclusive brand stores under the franchise model and there is significant increase in retail presence in the country over the last year with five distributors. Last month, when Apple CEO Tim Cook offered a positive response on plans to setup manufacturing unit in India after the Prime Minister met him in San Jose, California.
Croma said it has 97 stores across the country with 3.8 million customers. Apple owns more than 460 stores in 17 countries — more than half in the US. 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 in the year-earlier period, according to market tracker Counter-Point Research.
The new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are all set to launch in India on October 16 and are expected to be priced higher than usual.
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