Apple is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and other Apple products are hugely demanded products, especially in high-income countries. Apple products are also known to have big margins, and for this reason, being very profitable to trade.
Apple products are extremely profitable indeed for the manufacturer, Apple Inc. The costs of manufacturing are way below the retail prices. Each level on the distribution chain, starting from the manufacturer, then going through distributors, and retail, earn healthy margins.
The problem is Apple nowadays has almost taken all the levels of the distribution chain into its hands. They manufacture the products in their factories (even though in China), move the ready product using their own logistics, use their distributors, and deliver the product to their own Apple Stores. Or, they sell directly from apple.com, anyone can order from their online store and Apple will deliver to their home address.
This leaves little opportunity for others to participate in the very lucrative distribution of Apple products. Essentially, everything that brings substantial money from selling Apple products, including distribution, and retail, is in hands of Apple themselves. Clever move for them, but little opportunity for others.
There used to be a time in the early 2010s that Apple would allow companies to become Authorised Reseller of Apple products, and sell iPhones and other Apple products through their 3rd party store. Apple however stopped granting new Authorised Resellers since 2016.
The only exception now is big department stores with various outlets. Apple would either directly open Apple Stores in such department stores, or, they may give the store itself authorization to sell Apple products in its electronics department.
Does this mean there are no more opportunities for reselling Apple products? In reality, there are still significant opportunities to do it. Even though you cannot currently become a new Authorised Reseller of Apple products, there are a lot of wholesale Apple products stock in the market. They come from different sources. Some of them are coming from overstock by large retailers, older, catalog models. Some stock occasionally may be directly released by Apple itself to independent distributors and retailers, in order to maximize sales in a limited time. This happens, for example, in the times of a new big release, say, a new iPhone model. The demand for the new iPhone is immense, and even the vast number of Apple distributors and Apple stores at those times is not capable to deliver the products to the hands of customers within the hours after the release. In those cases, Apple may also send some quantities to independents so that they, in turn, may sell to the customers too. Even though Apple loses a little bit on margins due to some of it earned by independents, but the speed of delivering the new release to eager customers is more important in this case. There are also some other sources, for example, used refurbished Apple products are a large market where many companies make good profits.
Apple is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and other Apple products are hugely demanded products, especially in high-income countries. Apple products are also known to have big margins, and for this reason, being very profitable to trade.
Apple products are extremely profitable indeed for the manufacturer, Apple Inc. The costs of manufacturing are way below the retail prices. Each level on the distribution chain, starting from the manufacturer, then going through distributors, and retail, earn healthy margins.
The problem is Apple nowadays has almost taken all the levels of the distribution chain into its hands. They manufacture the products in their factories (even though in China), move the ready product using their own logistics, use their distributors, and deliver the product to their own Apple Stores. Or, they sell directly from apple.com, anyone can order from their online store and Apple will deliver to their home address.
This leaves little opportunity for others to participate in the very lucrative distribution of Apple products. Essentially, everything that brings substantial money from selling Apple products, including distribution, and retail, is in hands of Apple themselves. Clever move for them, but little opportunity for others.
There used to be a time in the early 2010s that Apple would allow companies to become Authorised Reseller of Apple products, and sell iPhones and other Apple products through their 3rd party store. Apple however stopped granting new Authorised Resellers since 2016.
The only exception now is big department stores with various outlets. Apple would either directly open Apple Stores in such department stores, or, they may give the store itself authorization to sell Apple products in its electronics department.
Does this mean there are no more opportunities for reselling Apple products? In reality, there are still significant opportunities to do it. Even though you cannot currently become a new Authorised Reseller of Apple products, there are a lot of wholesale Apple products stock in the market. They come from different sources. Some of them are coming from overstock by large retailers, older, catalog models. Some stock occasionally may be directly released by Apple itself to independent distributors and retailers, in order to maximize sales in a limited time. This happens, for example, in the times of a new big release, say, a new iPhone model. The demand for the new iPhone is immense, and even the vast number of Apple distributors and Apple stores at those times is not capable to deliver the products to the hands of customers within the hours after the release. In those cases, Apple may also send some quantities to independents so that they, in turn, may sell to the customers too. Even though Apple loses a little bit on margins due to some of it earned by independents, but the speed of delivering the new release to eager customers is more important in this case. There are also some other sources, for example, used refurbished Apple products are a large market where many companies make good profits.
