Gap Website Loses 20% of Audience
Add to store closings and falling sales, visits to Gap's online flagship Gap.com have fallen 20% in the past year.
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Add to store closings and falling sales, visits to Gap Inc.’s (NYSE: GPS) online flagship Gap.com have fallen 20% in a year, according to research firm Compete.
Gap.com had 10 million unique visitors in March 2015. Last month the figure dropped to 8 million.
While it is impossible to connect online sales with brick-and-mortar figures, the same-store sales of the Gap International division of Gap fell 3% in the five-week period which ended April 4, on top of a 7% drop in the same period a year earlier.
Gap continues to close Gap stores. In June 2015, the retailer said it would close 175 of its 675 stores in North America.
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While Gap’s direct competitors in the brick-and-mortar business include Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) and American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO), its online competition is the same as for virtually every other retailer —Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). Compete puts it unique visitors for March at 142 million.
Gap.com’s share drop in traffic mirrors the company’s overall problems, which it has been unable to solve. As e-commerce becomes the retail model of the future, Gap can’t afford the downturn.
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