April 15, 2015
Are Apple Watch demos a blueprint for future tech product debuts?
Word of Apple Watch preorders hitting an estimated one million in the first day seems to answer the question about whether the devices, which average in the range of $380 to $720 depending on the model, will sell. But one particular aspect of how the product rollout was managed could have broader implications for how brick-and-mortar storefronts function in the omnichannel era. A survey found nearly all the people who scheduled a try-on appointment for an Apple Watch ended up preordering one.
Apple Insider reported that Timothy Arcuri of financial services firm Cowen and Company conducted an informal survey of retailers in the San Francisco Bay Area, speaking to several dozen employees at each retail outlet. According to the analyst’s team, "between 85 and 90 percent of those who had an appointment to try on the Apple Watch bought in to the device."
![[Image: Apple Watch Try-On]](data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCAxIDEiIHdpZHRoPSIxIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjEiIGRhdGEtdT0iJTJGcHVibGljJTJGaW1hZ2VzJTJGZGlzY3Vzc2lvbnMlMkYxODIxOSUyRmFwcGxlLXdhdGNoLWRlbW8tc3RpbGwuanBnIiBkYXRhLXc9IjEiIGRhdGEtaD0iMSIgZGF0YS1iaXA9IiI+PC9zdmc+)
The try-on experience for Apple Watches, as reported on in a separate Apple Insider article, lasts 15 minutes at the Apple Store. Try-on sessions can be scheduled either at an Apple Store or online. Apple Insider reported that during the trial a user is not able to integrate the watch with his or her own phone as the Apple Watches are running demo software, but there are functional watches mounted on the walls that customers can play with further.
In a video posted on YouTube by Re/Code’s Katherine Boehret, the try-on experience appears more like something one would expect at a jewelry store than a technology retailer. The video culminates with Ms. Boehret being led to a different, more exclusive part of the store to try on the $17,000 high-end version of the Apple Watch.
The success of the try-on model in promoting sales may still run into problems when it comes to fulfillment. USA Today reports that the estimated wait times for preorder shipments of Apple Watches were already stretching into August.
Still, one wonders if companies like Google aren’t taking notes on the ups and downs of Apple’s new method of curated showrooming and trying to determine if it could work beyond the Apple Store. Google recently began trying to find its footing in the world of brick-and-mortar with a store-within-a-store concept inside a computer store in London.
- Nearly all Apple Watch retail try-ons are resulting in preorders, Cowen says – Apple Insider
- First look: Going hands-on with the Apple Watch at an Apple retail store – Apple Insider
- Wait times for Apple Watch pre-orders extend into summer – USA Today
- Trying on Apple’s $17,000 Watch – YouTube
- Will Retail Stores Make Google Inc. As ‘Cool’ As Apple Inc.? – The Motley Fool
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Discussion Questions
What lessons can other brick & click retailers learn from the Apple Watch try-on experience? What are the implications for pure play e-tailers considering a physical store presence?
Poll
The lesson is that when launching a complicated new product it’s good to let consumers try it before they buy. That said, of the 1 million people who ordered the watch the first day it was available, how many actually tried it on? I’ll wager that the number was 1 to 2 percent. So let’s not go crazy with predicting a new trend in e-commerce companies launching brick-and-mortar stores. The Apple Watch sold because it was the latest product from Apple. Few other brands can launch a product and experience the same result, regardless of how many demonstrations it schedules.
One important aspect to remember is that this process is working for an expensive product that customers want to see how it looks on them. However, an interesting aspect is that the store is being used for the experience and online is being used for purchase. Now fulfillment needs to be efficient as well. If it is, this could be a great example of an omnichannel process.
I went to the Apple store to try on the Apple Watch I had ordered. All the young woman could do was pull out a watch as I asked, tell me her favorite and that’s about it. This was far from a jewelry store experience.
I changed my mind to a different band, but this is no model of retailing.
The try-on experience works well because it delivers on a couple of key behavior prompts. One, making the appointment serves as a commitment in the mind of the shopper. They can already see themselves with the watch on in their minds, and they can already feel like a part of the “club” of owners or “one of the cool kids” per se.
Two, the act of physically holding on to a product (having it on the wrist) is another point of commitment in the subconscious mind. Now the shopper can associate even closer to the desires, feelings and fulfillment of having the watch.
The fly in the ointment is fulfillment. Four months is a really long time to “nurse the desire” without getting any of the benefits.
Video demos are certainly an option for pure play e-tailers. The Mirror Neuron Principle, simply described as the fact that watching the activity take place can elicit the same responses as doing, would suggest sales can be made this way. I don’t believe an 85 percent conversion rate would be possible, however, without the ultimate power that the face-to-face human engagement can deliver.
If I were Apple, I’d have been filming all the try-on events and making a series of videos to extend the opportunity. But I’d time the delivery to avoid the fulfillment gap becoming more of an issue.
I think furniture and appliance stores can learn a lot showcasing furniture and appliances to customers who will order the product for shipping and delivery. This is not new, and the old model of the rural Sears stores in the early 1900s for Kenmore and farm tractors usually took two months to fulfill.
This is actually a great model for crowdfunding a prototype with a pop-up concept store but nothing new for existing brick-and-click retailers unless they are offering something exclusive, like Lamborghini and Ferrari have done recently.
It is of course startling in retail for a product to have a pre-order wait time that could extend into the summer, according to USA Today. But this is Apple and we’re really talking very high-fashion and extreme brand loyalty. There is a lesson to be learned about creating a highly-special environment and special product display and offering on an invite only basis —as luxury retailers routinely do—for most other retail sectors. But it has to be a stand out product or occasion. Bonobos is doing a great job with their guide shops. Great model, product selection and personalized experience. There are many ways to promote product and enhance branding. So yes, learn from Apple and from luxury—but customize as special, very special, for the audience you serve.
None.
Apple isn’t a normal brand, it’s a cult (one which I belong to).
If Apple introduced iFruit, a real apple as it were, priced between $50 and $165 each, it would probably sell out in hours.
So, my view is that all Apple-related examples represent marketing exceptions rather than rules once you get beyond the basics, i.e., style trumps function, branding works when done right and buzz is rarely bad.
I think it all depends on the training of the employee for the try-on experience, and frankly what model the customer bought. I am curious of the conversion rate for the higher-end spectrum of the Apple Watch with try on. Frankly for most people, I suspect they already ordered it or plan to order it, and the try on was just a validation. They got 1 million orders for the watch already; try on is just an experience for some of them to validate the pre-order.
The automobile industry has been encouraging and inviting test drives for well over a century. Apple is simply using what works. This is not new or innovative. This method works whenever and where ever properly applied. Adding a well groomed encouraging personality with a perpetual smile is the correct garnish for this sales technique to capture a higher success rate. There is plenty of support from this sales success to commit a well done to Apple but no reason for a parade for finding a new way to sell.
Apple—the store and the very limited selection of SKUs—isn’t a normal retailer, so won’t represent a new business model for retailers.
That said, their careful curation of products does present an interesting model for product manufacturers. If I were managing a manufacturing company like LG, I’d certainly consider taking a similar path.
The retail industry has been called a fast follower industry. It’s an industry that waits for others to figure it out and then replicates with a twist. If we apply that to the Apple Watch product and launch, here is something shared by Apple in this article that is worth pondering.
“We shot all this stuff,” Dye says, “the butterflies and the jellyfish and the flowers for the motion face, it’s all in-camera. And so the flowers were shot blooming over time. I think the longest one took us 285 hours, and over 24,000 shots.”
What lesson can you learn? Think through all the details and “paint the back of the fence.”
Any wearable technology is going to need showrooms and an experience similar to other wearable items like jewelry/clothing. This is a great idea. Very surprised with the pre-order numbers though.
Once again, I jump to Angela Ahrendts. With all that luxury background, I was surprised not to see more of a luxury, private, exclusive, special invitation something. They really need to learn from this and learn from her instead of her adapting herself away from luxury.
As for the wait times. The fans are strong enough this first go-round but it can not happen again.
And that is my 2 cents.
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The lesson is that when launching a complicated new product it’s good to let consumers try it before they buy. That said, of the 1 million people who ordered the watch the first day it was available, how many actually tried it on? I’ll wager that the number was 1 to 2 percent. So let’s not go crazy with predicting a new trend in e-commerce companies launching brick-and-mortar stores. The Apple Watch sold because it was the latest product from Apple. Few other brands can launch a product and experience the same result, regardless of how many demonstrations it schedules.
One important aspect to remember is that this process is working for an expensive product that customers want to see how it looks on them. However, an interesting aspect is that the store is being used for the experience and online is being used for purchase. Now fulfillment needs to be efficient as well. If it is, this could be a great example of an omnichannel process.
I went to the Apple store to try on the Apple Watch I had ordered. All the young woman could do was pull out a watch as I asked, tell me her favorite and that’s about it. This was far from a jewelry store experience.
I changed my mind to a different band, but this is no model of retailing.
The try-on experience works well because it delivers on a couple of key behavior prompts. One, making the appointment serves as a commitment in the mind of the shopper. They can already see themselves with the watch on in their minds, and they can already feel like a part of the “club” of owners or “one of the cool kids” per se.
Two, the act of physically holding on to a product (having it on the wrist) is another point of commitment in the subconscious mind. Now the shopper can associate even closer to the desires, feelings and fulfillment of having the watch.
The fly in the ointment is fulfillment. Four months is a really long time to “nurse the desire” without getting any of the benefits.
Video demos are certainly an option for pure play e-tailers. The Mirror Neuron Principle, simply described as the fact that watching the activity take place can elicit the same responses as doing, would suggest sales can be made this way. I don’t believe an 85 percent conversion rate would be possible, however, without the ultimate power that the face-to-face human engagement can deliver.
If I were Apple, I’d have been filming all the try-on events and making a series of videos to extend the opportunity. But I’d time the delivery to avoid the fulfillment gap becoming more of an issue.
I think furniture and appliance stores can learn a lot showcasing furniture and appliances to customers who will order the product for shipping and delivery. This is not new, and the old model of the rural Sears stores in the early 1900s for Kenmore and farm tractors usually took two months to fulfill.
This is actually a great model for crowdfunding a prototype with a pop-up concept store but nothing new for existing brick-and-click retailers unless they are offering something exclusive, like Lamborghini and Ferrari have done recently.
It is of course startling in retail for a product to have a pre-order wait time that could extend into the summer, according to USA Today. But this is Apple and we’re really talking very high-fashion and extreme brand loyalty. There is a lesson to be learned about creating a highly-special environment and special product display and offering on an invite only basis —as luxury retailers routinely do—for most other retail sectors. But it has to be a stand out product or occasion. Bonobos is doing a great job with their guide shops. Great model, product selection and personalized experience. There are many ways to promote product and enhance branding. So yes, learn from Apple and from luxury—but customize as special, very special, for the audience you serve.
None.
Apple isn’t a normal brand, it’s a cult (one which I belong to).
If Apple introduced iFruit, a real apple as it were, priced between $50 and $165 each, it would probably sell out in hours.
So, my view is that all Apple-related examples represent marketing exceptions rather than rules once you get beyond the basics, i.e., style trumps function, branding works when done right and buzz is rarely bad.
I think it all depends on the training of the employee for the try-on experience, and frankly what model the customer bought. I am curious of the conversion rate for the higher-end spectrum of the Apple Watch with try on. Frankly for most people, I suspect they already ordered it or plan to order it, and the try on was just a validation. They got 1 million orders for the watch already; try on is just an experience for some of them to validate the pre-order.
The automobile industry has been encouraging and inviting test drives for well over a century. Apple is simply using what works. This is not new or innovative. This method works whenever and where ever properly applied. Adding a well groomed encouraging personality with a perpetual smile is the correct garnish for this sales technique to capture a higher success rate. There is plenty of support from this sales success to commit a well done to Apple but no reason for a parade for finding a new way to sell.
Apple—the store and the very limited selection of SKUs—isn’t a normal retailer, so won’t represent a new business model for retailers.
That said, their careful curation of products does present an interesting model for product manufacturers. If I were managing a manufacturing company like LG, I’d certainly consider taking a similar path.
The retail industry has been called a fast follower industry. It’s an industry that waits for others to figure it out and then replicates with a twist. If we apply that to the Apple Watch product and launch, here is something shared by Apple in this article that is worth pondering.
“We shot all this stuff,” Dye says, “the butterflies and the jellyfish and the flowers for the motion face, it’s all in-camera. And so the flowers were shot blooming over time. I think the longest one took us 285 hours, and over 24,000 shots.”
What lesson can you learn? Think through all the details and “paint the back of the fence.”
Any wearable technology is going to need showrooms and an experience similar to other wearable items like jewelry/clothing. This is a great idea. Very surprised with the pre-order numbers though.
Once again, I jump to Angela Ahrendts. With all that luxury background, I was surprised not to see more of a luxury, private, exclusive, special invitation something. They really need to learn from this and learn from her instead of her adapting herself away from luxury.
As for the wait times. The fans are strong enough this first go-round but it can not happen again.
And that is my 2 cents.