Asymco on Apple Retail

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According to Asymco Apple once saw "quantum jump" in retail store traffic, but only in the actual meaning of the term in question-- as in less of a "giant leap" and more of a "specific, discrete jump."

Apple Store Visitors

How so? Fiscal 2012 saw 372 million visits to Apple Stores. Fiscal 2013 saw 395 million. The numbers might be massive (the increase comes to 23m, the approximate population of Australia), but as plotted graphically (above) against past visitor number, growth appears to be relatively modest, if not on the slowdown.

Average store visitors

The graph for average visitors per store per quarter (above) also takes a similar pattern, with quarterly averages standing at a steady 240000 since mid-2010 aside for seasonal peaks.

So when did the quantum leap take place? One has to look further backwards in time, to 2009-2010. The period saw average visitor numbers leaping from a steady 160000/store/quarter to the current 240000/store/quarter. Asymco attributes the leap not to constant discrete factors (such as new, bigger stores and redesigns) but the "big bang" that was the iPad.

At the time of the iPad launch Apple retail SVP Ron Johnson remarked the stores were seemingly "designed" for the iPad, since it was a device customers need to "discover" within a retail environment. This makes sense, considering the current placement of iPads in Apple Stores around the world.

Following the iPad launch, one struggles to think of another Apple product clearly as revolutionary. And while customers still buy iPads, they don't need to visit stores in order to check what the deal with tablets is, so saturated is the market with such devices. Should Apple come up with another, equally "new" device (the iWatch or the iTV, maybe?) then perhaps Apple Store visitors will see a similar quantum leap. Until then, growth might continue to flatten further.

Go The Quantum Leap in Retail (Asymco)