Apple is planning a major retail increase in China in the coming weeks, retail chief Angela Ahrendts tells China's Xinhua News Agency. According to Ahrendts, Apple's aggressive strategy involves the opening of five new retail stores in the next five weeks. Apple is timing this expansion with the festive shopping of the February 19 Chinese New Year holiday.

"We are opening five new stores before the Chinese New Year this year. Four of the stores are in brand new cities for us," Angela Ahrendts, Apple's senior vice president of retail and online stores, told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

Apple already has opened one of the five planned retail locations, with the recent debut of a new store in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital and home to one of Apple's Foxconn facilities. Other upcoming stores include the West Lake Apple Store in Hangzhou, which will to open January 24.

apple_store_mixc_zhengzhou

Apple's just-opened MixC store in Zhengzhou

With the addition of these five new stores, Apple will operate a total of 20 retail locations in China and Hong Kong, on the way toward a goal of 40 stores in the Greater China region over the next several years. These new stores reflect Apple's increasing emphasis on China, which Ahrendts told Xinhua is "a huge and important market for every global company today."

Ahrendts said Apple is hiring in China. The biggest challenge she sees is keeping up with demand while providing the same global customer service standards. She would not say where the other three other stores will be, but Apple's China website lists store jobs in 15 places, including Anhui, Guizhou, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Shanxi and Tianjin, none of which currently have Apple stores. One store in Shanghai is the busiest globally, receiving more than 25,000 visitors a day.

China is a growing market for Apple with an increasing proportion of its revenue coming from its Asian retail and online storefronts. Apple's Chinese online store is the fastest growing store for the company, with orders up more than 80 percent last year.

Top Rated Comments

unplugme71 Avatar
120 months ago
with all the fanfare with which Angela came on to Apple, it has be very quiet since her joining. All her retail and fashion experience. I don't think its been a year yet, but I still expected to notice something different in the stores or in the approach of how Apple sells. It has pretty much been status quo. It makes me wonder if she is still working on changes, and if so they must be big if it's taking this long to announce.

Anyone worth their salary doesn't walk into a company and change things right away. It causes panic, it causes confusion, it causes a lot of negativity on employees and even customers... it just isn't good business practice.

You go into a company, you learn the current processes, you see them in action (ie visit to retail stores), you talk to employees, managers, and customers. You make 1 or 2 very small changes and see the reaction. You build trust that way. Then you can strategically plan to change the big pain points once you have earned that trust that you are making things better.

That's how its properly done.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
69Mustang Avatar
120 months ago
Anyone worth their salary doesn't walk into a company and change things right away. It causes panic, it causes confusion, it causes a lot of negativity on employees and even customers... it just isn't good business practice.

You go into a company, you learn the current processes, you see them in action (ie visit to retail stores), you talk to employees, managers, and customers. You make 1 or 2 very small changes and see the reaction. You build trust that way. Then you can strategically plan to change the big pain points once you have earned that trust that you are making things better.

That's how its properly done.

+1. Too many new execs want to make a big splash and only end up getting the floor wet. The former VP of Sales at my company came in swinging for the fences. Swing and a miss. Hence the descriptor former.

Apple retail, for the most part, is a machine. To break my rule about car analogies: Apple retail could benefit from a tune up and oil change. It doesn't need an engine swap and new transmission. Needs a coat wax, not a new paint job.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Even Longer Avatar
120 months ago
The title kind of makes me think: "Apple plans to open five new factory outlets in China"
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ipedro Avatar
120 months ago
Toronto may finally be getting a flagship Apple Store with one currently unannounced going in at the Eaton Centre's north expansion at Yonge and Dundas. It'll be 2 or 3 floors facing Yonge Street near the Roots.
Sears left the space last year and Nordstrom is the new anchor with several other high profile tenants taking over the remaining square footage. Apple is one of them.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

reset password request iphone

Warning: Apple Users Targeted in Phishing Attack Involving Rapid Password Reset Requests

Tuesday March 26, 2024 4:34 pm PDT by
Phishing attacks taking advantage of Apple's password reset feature have become increasingly common, according to a report from KrebsOnSecurity. Multiple Apple users have been targeted in an attack that bombards them with an endless stream of notifications or multi-factor authentication (MFA) messages in an attempt to cause panic so they'll respond favorably to social engineering. An...
Generic iOS 18 Feature Purple

iOS 18: What to Expect From 'Biggest' Update in iPhone's History

Wednesday March 27, 2024 11:10 am PDT by
At least some Apple software engineers continue to believe that iOS 18 will be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. "The iOS 18 update is expected to be the most ambitious overhaul of the iPhone's software in its history, according to people working on the upgrade," wrote Gurman, in a r...
maxresdefault

Apple Announces WWDC 2024 Event for June 10 to 14

Tuesday March 26, 2024 10:02 am PDT by
Apple today announced that its 35th annual Worldwide Developers Conference is set to take place from Monday, June 10 to Friday, June 14. As with WWDC events since 2020, WWDC 2024 will be an online event that is open to all developers at no cost. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. WWDC 2024 will include online sessions and labs so that developers can learn about new...
apple maps 3d feature

Apple Maps May Gain Custom Routes With iOS 18

Tuesday March 26, 2024 3:10 pm PDT by
Apple may be planning to add support for "custom routes" in Apple Maps in iOS 18, according to code reviewed by MacRumors. Apple Maps does not currently offer a way to input self-selected routes, with Maps users limited to Apple's pre-selected options, but that may change in iOS 18. Apple has pushed an iOS 18 file to its maps backend labeled "CustomRouteCreation." While not much is revealed...
General iOS 17 Feature Orange Purple

Apple Releases Revised Versions of iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 With Updated Build Number

Wednesday March 27, 2024 5:59 am PDT by
Apple on late Tuesday released revised versions of iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 with an updated build number of 21E237, according to MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. The updates previously had a build number of 21E236. The revised updates are available for all iPhone and iPad models that are compatible with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, but they can only be installed via the Finder app on macOS...
applephilschiller

Apple's Phil Schiller Works 80 Hours a Week Overseeing App Store

Wednesday March 27, 2024 2:03 pm PDT by
With the App Store and app ecosystem undergoing major changes in the European Union, The Wall Street Journal today shared a profile on App Store chief Phil Schiller, who is responsible for the App Store. Though Schiller transitioned from marketing chief to "Apple Fellow" in 2020 to take a step back from Apple and spend more time on personal projects and friends, he is reportedly working...
maxresdefault

Apple to Launch New iPad Pro and iPad Air Models in May

Thursday March 28, 2024 11:07 am PDT by
Apple will introduce new iPad Pro and iPad Air models in early May, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman previously suggested the new iPads would come out in March, and then April, but the timeline has been pushed back once again. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Apple is working on updates to both the iPad Pro and iPad Air models. The iPad Pro models will...
iphone 16 dummies

iPhone 16 Dummy Models Showcase Design Changes, New Buttons

Tuesday March 26, 2024 6:03 am PDT by
Images comparing purportedly accurate dummy models of the iPhone 16 series have been shared online, providing a closer look at the rumored design of the upcoming devices. The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are expected to get larger display sizes this year, according to multiple sources, while the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will be the same size as the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. ...