Apple hires workers in India to open first flagship store
Apple plans to take on many other roles as it begins hiring retail workers in India and prepares to open its first flagship store in the world’s second-largest smartphone market this quarter. Announced.
On Friday, Apple’s careers page listed 12 different job openings that it hopes to fill “various locations within India,” including tech specialists, business experts, senior managers, store leaders and “geniuses.” rice field.
Many job descriptions refer directly to the core retail business. “The Apple Store is a retail environment like no other. It’s focused on delivering an amazing customer experience,” she says.
A typical Apple Store has at least 100 employees, and a flagship store can have up to 1,000, so 12 listings means hundreds of job openings.
Some of Apple’s website features, such as “Market Leader,” describe it as managing teams across “the entire Apple store.”
Separately, it announced on LinkedIn that at least five employees from Mumbai and New Delhi have been hired for its yet-to-be-announced stores. One announced that she had been appointed a “Lead Genius,” a customer-facing tech support role, and another said she had been appointed to a senior management position. Renu Sevanthi, Apple’s head of recruiting in India, “celebrated” several announcements on her social networking site.
appledid not immediately comment and did not confirm plans to open its first store in the country. However, in February 2020, CEO Tim Cook told investors that Apple plans to open an Apple Store in India next year. He said he would expand and said he wasn’t happy with leaving retail sales to franchise partners. “I don’t want anyone else running the brand,” Cook said at the company’s 2020 annual meeting.
Later that year, Apple launched an online store for India, greeting online shoppers with “Namaste,” but no physical store appeared.
This expansion is important to Apple as it allows for manufacturing diversification. China And it gives momentum to early production operations in India. Supply chain experts say Apple has a “silicon-to-store” ambition to manage every aspect of the customer experience, from Apple-designed cell phone chips to retail associates in Apple Stores. It says.
“The stars are finally lining up for Apple in India,” said Neil Shah, an analyst at market intelligence group Counterpoint.
Cook reportedly personally visited and met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 and urged him to open an Apple Store in the country. But protectionist rules require foreign companies that sell goods directly to consumers to source 30% of their parts locally.
However, restrictions have eased in recent years, and in 2017 an Apple supplier began assembling iPhones in India. New Delhi has since given incentives to smartphone makers to move more production to the country, and its As a result, there have been significant investments from Taiwanese contract manufacturers Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron.
India’s Tata Group, which makes iPhone cases in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, plans to expand operations to provide a wider range of parts for Apple, according to three people familiar with the plans. I commented.
About 200 million smartphones were manufactured in India last year, according to Counterpoint. This is ten times his number assembled in 2014. Apple’s market share in India is only 5%, but it is growing rapidly, leading the premium segment with two-fifths of total sales.
“Since the pandemic, the number of iPhones sold in India has almost doubled,” Shah said. “It’s driving Mac, Apple Watch and iPad sales. There’s a positive network effect. Apple is eyeing this fast-growing market and now is the right time to enter and invest.” .”
Shah said that by the end of this year, Apple India will implement a four-tier sales strategy.
This includes e-commerce sales, at least two flagship stores in the wealthiest cities, 10 or more other stores potentially partnered with Tata, Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, and “in-store stores” partnership expansion. Large retailers nationwide.
Additional reporting by John Reid, New Delhi
https://www.ft.com/content/3a3a0343-8d47-4cf9-bf60-13a516fc3b03 Apple hires workers in India to open first flagship store