What does the new iPad mean for retailers?

There’s a reason Apple was crowned Wipro International Retailer of the Year at last week’s Oracle Retail Week Awards. No other retailer is capable of drumming up such excitement over a product release – even now, after years of Apple fans queuing outside stores and thousands of blog posts dissecting each launch, the appetite appears undiminished and few seem bored of the fanfare.

For retailers, of course, this is to be welcomed. Apple might sell the majority of its products itself, but they are still formidable footfall and traffic drivers to the sites and stores of companies from John Lewis to Tesco. Anything that creates interest in a tight spending environment is to be welcomed – and of course, once customers are in the store or on the site, they’re likely to look around at other things.

It’s up to the individual retailer to make the best of this, and in Tesco’s case some eyebrows were raised after an ‘IT error’ led to it accidentally selling the iPad for £50 on its website. Some have questioned how this happened, but whatever the cause it certainly helped Tesco climb the Google search rankings at a time when ‘iPad 3’ was one of the most hotly contested terms.

As well as providing a welcome boost in the beleaguered electronics sector, iPads are part of a burgeoning sales channel for retailers. Conversion rates on tablets are often higher than on smartphones, and order values tend to be higher. This is logical enough as the screen is bigger and they tend to be used at moments of leisure instead of on the go. With this in mind, the new iPad should reassure retailers that tablets will become an ever better channel on which to sell as they continue to be developed, with reviews reporting the high resolution screen is brighter and sharper – all the better for seeing images more clearly and feeling more confident in purchasing.