Step into the Gap?

This is really interesting news:

Gap's new footwear concept Piperlime is set to go live on October 16, 2006 and will be selling shoes by November 2006. This move represents a significant change from Gap's current retail strategy of selling own brand clothing from prime shopping locations.

Piperlime's first point of difference is that the brand will be entirely web based. This is presumably to exploit Gap's status as the internet's largest and most profitable retail e-commerce company, with online sales of $595 million in 2005 and sales in the second quarter of 2006 up 27% on 2005. Developing concepts such as Piperlime provides Gap with the opportunity to utilize its e-commerce platform, built in 2005, to produce new revenue.

Piperlime's second point of difference is that the brand will sell shoes that are designed, manufactured and branded by other companies. [...] Brands that will be sold on the Piperlime site include Mephisto, Taryn Rose, Anyi Lu and Umi Shoes.

-- "Gap: A New Brand Concept," DataMonitor, Oct 10, 06

I am a little embarrassed to have not known about this earlier, as people have been blogging about Piperlime for months and the launch date was buried in a press release from Clarks shoes. There was even something in the SF Business Times on Oct 6, 06: "Piperlime -- the Shoe Fits, Gap Wears It."

Going online-only is a great idea. The cross-branding thing is sort of a genius move: the brand associations can reinforce or rehabilitate your own brand image, and it can have a powerful, positive impact on shoppers.

(One of the oddities I've noticed in my catalog-leafing time: Title 9 Sports rarely mentions who makes their clothing, while Athleta uses other brands as a strong selling point. And while Title 9 does a great job of selling itself as a company where its employees get the customer, I have to admit that I love how Athleta makes it easy to comparison-shop if you're into a specific item, like Prana's yoga pants or Timbuk2's messenger bags. I've bought more Athleta items on sale after surfing for comparable items online ...)

Comments

[drunken monkey]

But will they ship to Canada? (Why don't you ship to Canada, Gap? I want the cute online-only stuff from Old Navy!)

Interesting shift for the brand, though. I wonder how it could play out for clothing if it works.

[Sarah]

And why don't they sell Forth & Towne online at all?

[Lisa]

I don't know. Here's my speculation. Let me emphasize: speculation only.

*

Much ado was made about the "shopping experience" you'd find at F&T and how it's supposed to mimic the great and luxurious escape that the department stores of yore offered. So the in-store experience is supposed to be a significant part of the brand identifier.

Now, add to that the idea and/or data that their real target audience -- women on the back end of that 35-50 age range -- is not so crazy about the e-commerce.

I could see someone making the argument that F&T is hitting an audience that wants, craves, values the offline experience, so why put in the infrastructure for an online site (or add to existing channels...) if it's not going to be an integral part of the target customer's shopping behavior?

[drunken monkey]

That makes sense, Lisa. It would also remove a reason for customers to go to the stores, and since their rollout has been slow (as I understand it), that's probably another incentive against taking it online. It takes away against the "special experience" that they seem to be going for with that line.

[wonkyeye]

I know F&T.com is not an ecommerce site yet (the site is up and running, but it's information only) because the brand was only a 'concept' until recently, being evaluated in 1 market, so investing millions in launching an ecommerce site makes no sense until the brand is more established. Seeing as it's now come to other markets, I would imagine that it's only a matter of time, however these things are not done over night.