Gap once had a strong hold over the clothing industry that actors and actresses had been sporting the clothing line even on formal events. Sharon Stone for instance wore one of its turtlenecks during the Oscars.
However, consumers eventually turned to other retailers which can keep up with the latest trend in fashion, something that Gap failed to do. In this age of constant fashion innovation, the retailer's design was left behind. Now America's largest apparel retailer is embarking on a shift to regain its "cool" image once more.
Gap is planning to reinvent its supply chain to compete with brands like H&M, Zara and Forever 21. At the same time, they will overhaul marketing and acquire new talents. According to Goldman Sachs in a recent report, "traditional retailers have design teams creating product they believe is going to be trending 12-months out unlike fast fashion retailers which have buying teams sourcing current trending fashion from third party vendors. Predicting fashion trends a year in advance is weighing on the success of big retailers like Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ann Taylor, American Eagle and others." If these retailers wrongly predict the fashion trend, they will lose a lot of profit. And this is what Gap is trying to avoid.
Gap President Jeff Kirwan said at an Investor's Conference this year, "So what I mean by rebuilt it is we put multiple lanes in our product pipeline. It's got our seasonal lane, but we now have a really good responsive lane. And we have the ability to get back into what's working quicker and get out of what's not working faster." As proof, Gap-owned Old Navy shows how the company is adapting to the fast fashion market through its pants called "pixies". The brand rolls out pieces in small batches to test demand before mass-producing them. This strategy might explain why Old Navy has outrun Gap and became the third biggest apparel company according to a report released by Fashionista.
A photo posted by GAP (@gap) on Jul 31, 2015 at 12:57pm PDT
Gap also identifies its need to connect with technology to attract young customers. Aside from this, the brand has also acknowledged mistakes like limited variations for certain styles or making too trendy merchandise. This was addressed by replacing creative director Rebekka Bay earlier this year. They also brought in Wendi Goldman from C.Wonder, Steven Sare from Uniqlo and Alessandra Brunialti. Along with new ad campaigns, the brand hopes to succeed in becoming the cool retailer it once was.
