According to Indian law, all branded stores should obtain 30 percent of their stocks from Indian companies but unlike others, Apple so far has not been able to do so. Instead, the Cupertino-based company sells its products through franchises, which operate the stores under their own brand names. Although, the feel and the look of these franchised stores is quite alike official stores, they do not match them completely.
Therefore, “these franchisees, who did not wish to be named, told ET that they have been asked to scale up operations in the country as the Cupertino-based company plans to grow aggressively in the country. In addition to increasing the number of Apple exclusive stores, called Apple Premium Resellers, that are owned and managed by 17 franchisees, the company also plans to expand its presence in multi-brand stores, they said.”
“Some of these plans are said to have been discussed during last month’s Mumbai visit of Hugeues Asseman, Apple’s vicepresident (sales) for Europe, Middle-East, India, and Africa. Asseman met key trade partners and franchisee owners to take stock of the company’s India business and to outline the company’s expansion plans. Apple’s London-based spokesman, Alan Hely, declined comment on the company’s expansion plans.”
Now Apple is increasingly focusing on expanding its sales in the developing countries since the established markets that were its prime focus earlier, have now touched the saturation point. However, high prices of Apple’s products are a big hurdle for the company, as earnings of the people living in developing countries make it hard to pay the premium on Apple’s products. Therefore, historically Apple has struggled to increase its sales in India, but the company has found a solution to sort this issue as it introduced monthly installment plans late during last year.
In addition to this, Apple also focused on distribution and marketing of its devices in India. As a result of that the market share of Apple in the country jumped up from 3.9 percent in third quarter of 2012 to 15.6 percent in the fourth, which was a remarkable achievement for the iOS device maker. Now Apple seems pretty pleased with its increasing market share in the country and has now introduced Apple TV in India, which clearly indicates the company believes that there is a big room for it to boost its market share.
Nevertheless, it’s too early to call the franchising policy of Apple a hit, as only time will tell how successful it will prove in the long-term.
Source: 9to5Mac
Photo: AppleInsider
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