Apple's exclusive online store goes live in India

IANS Photo

IANS Photo

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 23 (IANS): The first Apple Store Online went live in India on Tuesday, offering a full range of products, support and premium experience to consumers and the large aspirational fan base across the country, including trading old phones for a new iPhone.

The online store provides the ability to custom-configure any Mac with just a few clicks.

With financing options and available trade-in programme, the Apple Store Online offers a range of affordability options.

Students can shop for a Mac or iPad with special pricing, and receive discounts on accessories and Apple Care+ that extends warranty with up to two years of technical support and accidental damage cover.

Apple currently has third-party reseller outlets and online channels to sell its devices in the country and its own branded online store will certainly help the company in giving a controlled experience of its devices and services.

For logistics support, Apple has partnered with Blue Dart to be its on-ground fulfillment partner. Given the current pandemic situation, customers can expect safe, contactless deliveries in 24-72 hours from the date of purchase of all premium and new products, including Apple Watch Series 6 and new iPad Air.

For the health and well-being of Apple's teams, customers, and communities, all orders from the Apple Store Online will ship with contactless delivery.

The Apple India store, the 38th online store worldwide, would have specialists to lend expert advice and support to the Indian customers.

From learning more about product features to setting up new devices, customers can receive guidance directly from Apple, including online support in English and phone support in Hindi and English.

Those who buy Apple products will be eligible for a 30-minute, one-on-one online session with a trained executive to explore more about the device, set it up and or solve any other query.

Next month, customers can expect free online 'Today at Apple' sessions led by local creative professionals, focused on photography and music.

Just in time for the festive season, signature gift wrap and personalised engraving will be available for select products, according to the company.

Engraving of emojis or text in English, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu will be available for AirPods, and English engraving will be available for iPad and Apple Pencil.

Orders that do not require a signature will be left at the customer's door, and those that do will need only a verbal confirmation from a safe distance instead of a written signature.