Apple retail stores are gearing up to provide a home delivery service for customers.
The company is developing a new mode of delivery known as EasyPay Online Ordering, Bloomberg reported Sunday (July 23). It will enable customers to make in-store purchases and have their products delivered to their homes or offices.
Apple is planning to debut the EasyPay Online Ordering initiative in stores beginning this August, according to the report.
During in-store purchases, customers will have the option to select home delivery. Apple’s EasyPay point-of-sale (POS) machines will be used to ship the chosen products to the customer’s preferred location.
In the past, store employees were restricted to recommending online purchases or assisting customers in placing orders on the website. However, the introduction of the new program has integrated home shipping into the Apple retail EasyPay terminals. Consequently, store staff can directly facilitate home delivery for customers, eliminating the necessity for customers to visit the website separately for this service.
Offering home delivery marks a significant departure from Apple’s traditional approach to selling products in its stores. Amidst increasing competition, particularly from online giants like Amazon, the move has the potential to provide Apple with a competitive edge. Additionally, it brings newfound convenience to customers living far from an Apple Store.
The initiative also has the potential to assist Apple in streamlining its inventory management, as it reduces the necessity to maintain extensive stock in its physical stores. The program offers flexibility and convenience to customers purchasing bulkier items such as iMacs, eliminating the burden of transporting these heavy products on their own.
In other Apple news, the company began using its in-house artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to assist employees.
The tech giant is using the chatbot to help workers summarize text, answer questions based on training data and prototype future features.
Apple is considering other ways to use generative AI in-house, such as giving the tool to its AppleCare support team to help customers with technical issues.
News broke Wednesday (July 19) that Apple is working on AI tools. Its development of large language models (LLMs) — the AI-based systems at the heart of new services — represents a major effort for the company.
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