Apple opens for business in yet another new market, Chile

Apple continues to expand its reach, revealing plans to open a new online Apple Store in Chile next week.

Opening up in Chile

The store will sell the full range of Apple products, accessories, offer trade-ins, one-to-one training and help from Apple Specialists. Apple users in Chile will also be able to access financing, and shoppers will get free shipping.

The company is also offering extended free trials of Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple Arcade to those purchasing eligible devices from its store. And, if you want to, you can download wallpaper for your existing Apple device to celebrate the launch.

Searching for growth

Now, on the surface a new online operation in Chile may not seem to mean very much to Apple users based elsewhere – though it will mean a lot to fans in Chile. In fact, however, it demonstrates the extent to which Apple continues in its attempts to ramp up its retail offer in new nations as it searches for growth.

The wallpaper looks like this

Chile is a positive market, though growth has slowed in the last few years.

“Chile has a recognized track record in development, with strong economic dynamism in recent decades. However, growth has been slowing down, stagnating productivity and progress in equity. 30% of the population is economically vulnerable and income inequality is high,” says the World Bank.

As noted recently, Apple continues this expansion as it seeks to mitigate the impact of a flattening market in other places. These efforts may even extend to the introduction of new stores in Africa and elsewhere.

Cook’s world tour

Cook discussed retail during the company’s Q3 earnings call earlier this year.

At that time, he said: “There’s still a lot of countries out there that don’t have Apple stores that we would like to go into. We continue to see it as a key part of how we go to market and love the experience that we can provide customers there.”

Of course, the customer experience is also the Apple experience, and the need to diversify and multiply its business operations has never been clearer.  The company currently has physical brick and mortar stores in 26 countries, including Brazil and Mexico in South America. Apple also recently launched an online store in Vietnam.

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