A few days ago, the fast fashion brand GAP Group announced that the company’s same-store sales increased by 1% in May, a 6% decrease from the same period last year. In addition, same-store sales of the group’s main brand GAP fell by 3% year-on-year, while secondary brands Banana Republic and Old Navy increased by 3% and 2% respectively.
GAP Group recently announced that it will open 35 new stores in China this year. However, in the face of the continued decline in performance, it is obviously difficult to boost performance by opening stores alone. Industry insiders believe that compared to ZARA, H&M and Uniqlo, GAP was the last to enter China, so its awareness among consumers is relatively low. At the same time, GAP’s average price is about twice that of H&M and Uniqlo, and its fashion and update rate are also lower than ZARA. Recently, the author found in several shopping malls that even on weekends, the customer flow of several GAP stores in Beijing was not large.
Industry insiders said that recently, fast fashion clothing brands have become increasingly saturated in first- and second-tier cities, and consumers in third- and fourth-tier cities do not have high awareness of the brand. The trend of declining performance is unavoidable. Therefore, GAP can only start Find another way.
In March this year, GAP Group officially introduced its Old Navy into the Chinese market. This brand has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, Canada and Japan, while GAP only has 700 stores. It is reported that Old Navy’s single store sales are several times that of GAP, but it is not as international as GAP. It is reported that GAP Group is planning to open 5 Old Navy stores in China, and another sub-brand Banana Republic will also enter the Chinese market in 2016.
