S'pore Apple store offers creative sparks for tech, retail sectors

Singapore

APPLE'S first retail store in Singapore will offer free, hands-on sessions on topics such as photography, music, coding and design.

And when you have picked out your latest tech toys, you will be able to use Apple Pay - and charge an unlimited amount through it. The usual S$100 limit won't apply in this shop.

For these and other reasons (such as free wifi and charging points), observers say the Apple store will give a fillip to the tech, creative and retail sectors.

The two-storey premises in Knightsbridge Mall designed by British architecture firm Foster+Partners, which is to open on Saturday, was unveiled to the media on Thursday.

Aligned with Apple's vision for its stores, Apple Orchard Road - its official name - has been designed to be a "modern-day town square", a place to shop, be inspired and learn or connect with others in the community.

Apple said it expects this store, reportedly slated to have opened late last year, to be one of its most popular in the world.

The store scores a number of design firsts. On each side of the interior space are two curved Castania stone staircases, which will echo those in Apple Park, the company's future headquarters in Cupertino, California.

The staircases, which come with handrails shaped to resemble the curves of an iPhone, mark a departure from the glass staircases that have come to be a signature of Apple stores elsewhere.

On the second floor is a large space dedicated to "Today at Apple", where local technologists and creative people will be on hand to run those hands-on classes.

Flanked by two groves of ficus trees, the area features a video wall, box stools and seats covered with Hermès leather, the same material used in Apple Watch Hermès.

Denny Tuza, senior marketing director of Apple Retail, said Apple Orchard Road has been designed to blur the line between being inside and outside the store: In addition to the 16 ficus trees in the store, another eight stand outside it; the LED lights in the store are programmed to mimic natural light from the outside.

The store's glass facade - all 36.6m of it - is made of glass that is "extremely clear". Mr Tuza told reporters: "We want to remove any obstacles that might be between us and the local community."

Apple Orchard Road also has a boardroom equipped with an eight-seater table which companies can use for meetings.

Christine Li, research director at Cushman & Wakefield, told The Business Times that tech advances and demographic changes have vastly transformed the way consumers shop.

"Retail is no longer about making a sale, but about entertaining and delighting consumers. This is precisely what the Apple store is doing - putting the excitement and life back into retail through entertainment."

That Apple chose the Orchard Road shopping belt for its first South-east Asian store shows that Orchard Road "is not dead", she added. "Apple is going to make Orchard Road exciting for tourists and locals again. Perhaps we can look at how much the Apple store can spice up Orchard Road, before we talk about pedestrianising the shopping belt."

Declan Ee, co-founder of Singapore online furniture store Castlery, said that while tech and e-commerce are key to meeting the needs of today's digitised consumer market, the opening of Apple's flagship store in the region shows that an online presence can never fully replace the value of human interaction.

"While an online presence is important for product and brand discovery, a physical experience centre is essential to create a holistic customer interaction with the brand. Apple's flagship store will provide consumers with a new immersive experiential touch point with the brand, otherwise inaccessible online."