14 DAY TRIAL // After admitting to making some pretty big blunders, Apple’s retail division continues to push forward with a formula that might yield positive results for the company, but only in the short-term, sources caution.
After backtracking on his decision to lay off some retail staffers, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Retail, John Browett, has left some demotions in place, while removing some workshops.
Overtime has been limited for some employees, and sales of iPhones with contracts now measure performance for each employee.
At the same time, store Specialists have been told to encourage customers to purchase accessories using the EasyPay app. This, however, credits revenue to the store, not to the Specialist’s sales history.
A new “Essentials per hero” program now measures sales of accessories and other items, and some product display areas have been replaced with “Etc.” Maintenance budgets have reportedly been reduced as well.
All this comes from people with deep knowledge of the matter speaking to ifoAppleStore, a source with a proven track record on information pertaining to Apple’s Retail division.
Touching on the departure of Apple’s former Retail boss, ifo notes that “[Ron] Johnson was champion of customer satisfaction, designing and staffing the stores to provide a superior experience for visitors and buyers alike.”
“He was able to win over Steve Jobs with the concept that revenue and profit should be a secondary goal of Apple’s retail stores.”
However, when Steve Jobs took a six-month medical leave, putting Tim Cook in charge of the company, some changes began to occur. Some bad changes, at least as far as the retail operations were concerned, according to ifo’s analysis.
“But in 2009, Jobs took six months of medical leave and put Tim Cook in charge of the company, including the retail stores. Cook is primarily an ‘operations guy,’ sources explain, and his natural focus is revenues and profits, not customers.”
“While Jobs was away, Cook and chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer began to confront Johnson on his customer-centric retail philosophy—both felt the stores didn’t generate enough revenues to justify operating expenses.”
One source with knowledge of the situation found it ironic that Apple’s mission was to re-invent the concept of retail. It has succeeded at doing so for the past decade but innovation has come to a halt in recent years.
“Those that have come from other failed or failing retailers will be allowed to peddle their poor ideas at Apple, and tarnish what has been one of the single greatest retailers on the planet,” a source said.