Apple Store guru's start-up Enjoy rolls into LA, Chicago

SAN FRANCISCO — Nearly a year into the first start-up of his largely corporate career, Enjoy CEO Ron Johnson, 55, is facing an unanticipated problem.

Enjoy is a portal for high-end electronics such as iPhones and DJI drones that provides free delivery and an hour of in-person expert set-up advice with each purchase. But company research shows that many shoppers still seem to greet the offer with a raised eyebrow.

"It's like they think there's a catch," says Johnson, whose hip makeover of Target led Steve Jobs to put him in charge of the Apple Store launch. Before going the start-up route last May, Johnson had an ill-fated stint trying to turn around J.C. Penney.

The Enjoy catch is rather boring, Johnson explains. By selling products that aren't typically subjected to online price wars, Enjoy takes the profit built in to retail prices to pay his full-time delivery staffers and cover the cost of inventory warehouses, "which is still cheaper than operating a bunch of stores."

So despite that lingering consumer wariness about getting something for nothing, Enjoy is expanding. On Monday, the service debuts in Los Angeles. In May, it rolls into Chicago, a quick doubling from its current San Francisco and New York operations.

Apple store guru Ron Johnson launches concierge service for tech devices

Despite sitting on $80 million raised from the likes of Highland Capital Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, Johnson deliberately has taken his time with Enjoy's expansion.

"The mistake I made at J.C. Penney was trying to change things too fast," says Johnson. "So I'm going back to what I learned at Apple, which is that there's no such thing as an overnight success. For the first 18 months, very few people came to the Genius Bar. We had to start stocking Evian water to lure people over."

Now you need an appointment to get into the Genius Bar, an awareness turnaround that Johnson hopes also will happen to Enjoy.

"Our visits per week numbers are up ten-fold from a year ago, 49% of customers give us feedback, and 97% of them give us five stars, so I feel comfortable that we are on the right path to changing the game on service," he says, adding that Enjoy is also meeting its mission of "eliminating returns, since about 99% of our customers do not send the products back."

Enjoy's model has attracted a range of partners, including AT&T and American Express. The former made the brisk-selling iPhone 6 available to Enjoy last fall, while the latter now offers its customers the ability to redeem rewards gifts via Enjoy. Late last year, Apple also started making its products available through Enjoy.

FAST DELIVERY KEY TO SUCCESS

Operating in a new city requires Enjoy to both hire staffers familiar with the 150 products for sale on the site (up from 29 at launch), and get a feel for local transportation headaches to ensure that experts arrive on time. That's particularly critical because 50% of those who order goods on Enjoy opt for the first available delivery window, which is within four hours of placing an order.

In New York, Enjoy experts often take the subway, while in Chicago they may also be using scooters. In Los Angeles, building in time to allow for epic traffic will be critical to expediting orders.

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"When we started, I was sure most people would plan a visit when the knew they'd have time for a focused interaction, but instead people just want to get what they order as fast as they can," says Johnson.

So why not just order expedited delivery from a rival tech gadget site and dispense with the visit from a human instruction manual?

Johnson is convinced that as intuitive as many tech companies try and make their products, there are so many frequent feature upgrades that having someone show you is more efficient than figuring it out yourself. He cites the example of his new Apple iPad Pro, whose split window and gesture features were demonstrated to him by an Enjoy expert.

"I could have figured it out over time, but in a matter of minutes he showed me what was new," says Johnson. "This certainly is a do-it-yourself world thanks to the Internet. But we think it's often nice to do it with someone else."

Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter @marcodellacava