安傑拉阿倫茨能重新定義蘋果商店嗎

Four years ago, I took my kids to Amsterdam. After a long day of touring museums and canals, they started to whine. Then I hit upon the perfect bribe: look, there’s the Apple store. After half an hour of playing with iPads, iMacs and iPhones, they were all smiles as we walked back to the hotel.

四年前，我帶幾個孩子去阿姆斯特丹。在參觀了一整天博物館、運河之後，他們開始叫苦。在那時，我突然發現了一個可以討好他們的完美地點：看，那有一家蘋果(Apple)商店。孩子們在那裏玩了半小時ipad、iMac和iPhone，當我們步行回酒店時，他們滿臉笑容。

Their enthusiasm helps illustrate why Apple stores are generally considered the world’s most successful. Their glass walls and wooden tables full of gadgets generate far more sales per square foot than any big retail competitor.

他們的熱情有助於解釋，爲什麼蘋果商店通常被認爲是全球最成功的商店。玻璃幕牆和木質桌子上滿是各種電子小玩意兒，這裏每平方英尺產生的銷售額遠超任何大型零售業競爭對手。

This brings us to Thursday’s launch of Angela Ahrendts’ new vision for the company’s retail outlets. The former Burberry chief executive, who was given a stock grant worth up to $68m on her arrival at the tech group, has spent the past two years rethinking its offering as its product range changes. The result, unveiled in San Francisco on the 15th anniversary of the first Apple store opening, will be rolled out across many of the group’s 400 stores in 18 countries.

上週四，安傑拉•阿倫茨(Angela Ahrendts)推出了自己爲蘋果零售店所做的新設計。曾擔任博柏利(Burberry)首席執行官的阿倫茨被挖到蘋果時，獲得了這家科技集團提供的價值最高達6800萬美元的贈股。過去兩年，隨着蘋果產品線的變化，她一直在思考如何改造蘋果商店的呈現方式。在首家蘋果商店開業15週年之際，全新設計的蘋果商店在舊金山揭幕，該集團位於全球18個國家的400家商店中，許多都將應用這一全新設計。

Mostly, her vision seems to involve even bigger glass doors and lots of plants. Every flagship store will have outdoor space — in San Francisco, the greenery-lined square will feature free WiFi and acoustic musicians on weekends. The Genius Bar, where customers go for help with technical issues, has been replaced by a Genius Grove stocked with trees and more space for people to sit while they wait. Tart commentators suggested the tree money might have been better spent on more staff to keep delays down.

總體看來，她的設計似乎包括了比以前還要大的玻璃門以及大量的植物。每家旗艦店都將擁有室外空間——在舊金山店，綠樹成蔭的廣場將覆蓋免費WiFi，每逢週末還有音樂家現場演奏。幫助顧客解決技術問題的“天才吧”(Genius Bar)被樹木成排的“天才林”(Genius Grove)取代，爲等待的顧客提供更多坐下休息的空間。但刻薄的評論人士稱，植樹花費的錢或許還不如用於增加人手，以減少各種延誤。

On the more practical side, Apple staff will include “creative pros” who can advise customers on how to use its technology for photography and making music. And it plans to woo small businesses with a dedicated area called the boardroom. The jargon is a bit sickening, but this probably reflects a sensible effort by the company to broaden its offerings with revenue from iPhones falling.

更實用的舉措是，蘋果商店將納入“創意專業人士”爲自己的員工，他們能爲顧客提供如何利用蘋果技術拍照和製作音樂的建議。蘋果還計劃利用所謂“董事會議室”的專門區域吸引小型企業。這樣做有點招人反感，但在iPhone銷售收入下滑之際，該公司此舉或許不失爲擴大業務的明智之舉。

Apple says that it is responding to the fact that customers now go online for simple transactions and expect something more unique from actual stores. “It is kind of our fault that retail is changing,” said Ms Ahrendts. “Therefore, we realised that we needed to do something different with our physical space.”

蘋果表示，它是在迴應這一現實，即：簡單的交易，顧客如今都在線上進行；在實體店裏，他們期待能有更獨特的體驗。“零售業正在轉變，我們負有幾分責任。”阿倫茨說，“因此，我們意識到，需要讓我們的實體空間變得稍微與衆不同一些。”

This is not the first time Ms Ahrendts has sought to transform the shopping experience. Back in 2012 she reopened Burberry’s flagship London store, telling reporters it was designed to be the physical manifestation of the company’s “Burberry World Live” website. The media swooned, saying that the shop, which swapped out tills for roving sales staff with swipe machines, was a manifestation of the luxury group’s revolutionary digital-first approach.

這並非阿倫茨首次試圖改變購物體驗。她在2012年就重新打造了博柏利的倫敦旗艦店，並對記者表示，設計理念是，讓該店以實體形式呈現公司的“博柏利世界直播”(Burberry World Live)網站。媒體對此大加讚賞，稱該店（店裏手持刷卡機走來走去的銷售人員取代了收銀臺）是這家奢侈品集團數字化革命的標誌。

Burberry, which was coming off a profit warning, then saw its sales soar, and its share price nearly doubled. Apple came calling and wooed Ms Ahrendts away.

隨後，原本遭遇盈利預警的博柏利出現了銷售額飆升，股價幾乎翻了一番。後來蘋果主動找上門，將阿倫茨挖走。

Since then, the news has not been so good. Burberry has been hit hard by a fall in Chinese sales. Shares have dropped 35 per cent in the past 12 months, despite a ￡25m cost-cutting drive. The company is now considering bringing in a senior manager to shore up Christopher Bailey, who has held both the top design position and the chief executive role since Ms Ahrendts’ departure.

自那時起，形勢發展一直不順。中國區銷售額下滑重創了博柏利。過去12個月，該公司股價下跌了35%，儘管推出了削減成本2500萬英鎊的計劃。如今，博柏利正在考慮聘請一名高級經理來輔佐克里斯托弗•貝利(Christopher Bailey)，自阿倫茨離開後，貝利一直既擔任創意總監、又擔任首席執行官。

Burberry’s current woes may have nothing to do with Ms Ahrendts. But perhaps her highly vaunted effort to reimagine luxury shopping was more about hype than real transformation. Apple is about to find out.

博柏利當前的困境可能與阿倫茨並無關聯。但或許，她在重新定義奢侈品購物體驗方面被過度吹噓的努力更多的只是炒作，而非真正的變革。蘋果即將發現答案。