Apple has began hiring retail retailer employees in India and posted plans to fill many different roles because it prepares to open its first flagship places on the earth’s second largest smartphone market as quickly as this quarter.

On Friday, Apple’s profession web page listed openings for 12 totally different job features it seeks to fill in “various locations within India,” together with technical specialist, enterprise skilled, senior supervisor, retailer chief and “genius”. 

Many of the job descriptions refer on to flagship retail operations. “The Apple Store is a retail environment like no other — uniquely focused on delivering amazing customer experiences,” says one.

The 12 listings suggest tons of of job openings, as a typical Apple Store has no less than 100 workers and flagship places can have as much as 1,000 employees.

Some of the features on Apple’s web site, resembling “market leader,” describe managing groups “across Apple Stores,” implying a number of places are within the works past the extensively reported 22,000 sq. foot location set to open in Mumbai as early as March.

Separately, no less than 5 workers in Mumbai and New Delhi have introduced on LinkedIn they’ve been employed for the yet-to-be-announced shops. One introduced they’d been named “Lead Genius” — a customer-facing tech-support function — whereas one other mentioned she had been named a senior supervisor. Apple’s head of recruiting in India, Renu Sevanthi, “celebrated” a number of of the bulletins on the social networking web site.

Apple, which didn’t instantly remark, has not confirmed plans to open its first shops within the nation. But in February 2020 CEO Tim Cook informed traders Apple Store would broaden to India the next yr, saying he was not content material to depart retail gross sales to franchise companions. “I don’t want somebody else to run the brand for us,” Cook mentioned on the 2020 annual shareholders assembly.

Later that yr Apple launched its on-line retailer for India, greeting web shoppers with “Namaste”, however bodily shops have did not emerge.

The growth can be necessary for Apple because it makes an attempt to diversify manufacturing from China and provides momentum to its nascent manufacturing operations in India. Supply chain specialists say Apple has a “silicon to storefront” ambition of controlling all elements of the client expertise — from Apple-designed chips in its telephones to Apple Store retail clerks.

“The stars are finally aligning for Apple in India,” mentioned Neil Shah, analyst at Counterpoint, a market intelligence group.

Cook personally visited and met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, reportedly lobbying to open an Apple Store within the nation. But protectionist guidelines require that overseas firms promoting items on to customers should supply 30 per cent of parts domestically.

However, the principles have been relaxed lately, and in 2017 Apple suppliers started assembling iPhones in India. This allowed it to keep away from 22 per cent tariffs, which helped to buoy gross sales. New Delhi has since given incentives to smartphone makers to shift extra manufacturing to the nation, leading to main investments from Taiwanese contract producers Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron.

India’s Tata Group, which makes casings for iPhones within the southern state of Tamil Nadu, plans to scale up its operations to offer a broader vary of parts for Apple, in response to three folks accustomed to its plans, on which the Indian industrial group has not commented.

Last yr, about 200mn smartphones have been made in India, ten occasions the quantity assembled in 2014, in response to Counterpoint. And whereas Apple’s market share in India is simply 5 per cent, it’s rising shortly and leads the premium phase with two-fifths of all gross sales.

“Since the pandemic, the number of iPhones sold in India has almost doubled,” mentioned Shah. “That’s driving sales of Macs, Apple Watches and iPads. There’s a positive network effect. So Apple is noticing this fast-growing market, and now is the right time to enter, to invest.”

Shah mentioned that by the top of this yr, Apple India is predicted to have a four-layer gross sales technique in place.

This would comprise ecommerce gross sales, no less than two flagship shops in its most prosperous cities, 10 or extra different shops in potential partnership with Tata, in tier-one and tier-two cities, in addition to rising “store within a store” partnerships with huge field retailers throughout the nation.

Additional reporting by John Reed in New Delhi