Gap is closing all 81 of its stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland by the end of the year. The company is aiming to be a “digital-first business.”
“The e-commerce business continues to grow, and we want to meet our customers where they are shopping,” the retail company said in a statement on Wednesday.
The move to transition into a digital-first platform stems from the decline in sales. Last year, the company experienced a 64% decline in brick-and-mortar store sales.
“The Gap-sized hole in the high street which will be left when the U.S. retailer closes its final stores at the end of September will be hard to fill, given the big names which have already left bricks and mortar shops behind,” Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at stockbrokers Hargreaves Lansdown, said.
According to The New York Times, Gap is planning to nix 32 locations in France and Italy.
“We are thoughtfully moving through the consultation process with our European team, and we will provide support and transition assistance for our colleagues as we look to wind down stores,” Gap said in a statement.
Analysts are banking on Kanye West’s collaboration with the brand to help with growth and profitability. Wells Fargo and Guidepoint conducted a survey asking 530 Gap shoppers and 470 non-Gap consumers about their take on the Yeezy Gap collection. According to Yahoo!, 64% of Gap consumers said they plan to purchase items from the line, and 23% of non-Gap customers said they would shop the line. From the information that was gathered, Wells Fargo believes that Kanye West’s collaboration with the brand “could drive up to $990 million in incremental sales for Gap in fiscal 2022 and raise the company’s share price by about 50 cents per share.”
Last month, Gap released a $200 zipperless, cobalt blue unisex puffer jacket from the collection. The jacket sold out of pre-orders online.
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