Angela Ahrendts is considered a pioneer in bringing upmarket fashion online, and in recent years Burberry has been as comfortable talking about smartphones as skirt lengths. Its latest annual report, which shows revenues have grown from £740m when Ahrendts joined, in January 2006, to almost £2bn today, forecasts the "dissolution of boundaries separating physical and digital channels".
Burberry says that while the global recession has meant soft footfall instore, online has helped pick up the slack. Burberry uses social media extensively, building excitement around its collections by photographing clothes before they leave the studio and backstage before they appear on the catwalk. Ahrendts has already worked closely with Apple. Burberry helped launch the iPhone 5S by using dozens of them to live stream its London catwalk show.
Burberry.com delivers in more than 100 countries and the website has been translated into eight languages, including Korean and Spanish.
At Burberry, her vision was to "serve completely any consumer on any platform in any geography". It is an ambition she may well bring to Apple.
Source: theguardian
