Gap opens new flagship store in Shanghai

Gap officially unveiled a new flagship store on Nanjing Road W. on Friday, its biggest on China’s mainland, as a key step towards its omni-channel strategy.

The US-headquartered apparel retailer operates the Gap and the Old Navy brands through 160 outlets in about 40 cities on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The new flagship store covers 1,900 square meters, and has more styling ideas and as well as a photo-shooting area to enhance family shoppers’ purchasing experience, as well as digital directories and an interactive denim “lookbook” catalogue offering individualized style guides for consumers.

Abinta Malik, executive vice president and general manager for Gap in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, said: ”We believe that in-person connections and interaction with consumers in physical stores still matter and we intend to continuously innovate our physical store experience by integrating digital and other new customer touchpoints.  

Omni-channel refers to integrating different methods of shopping, such as in-story, online and by phone.

Gap’s online presence in China includes flagship stores on JD.com and Alibaba’s Tmall and it’s also testing a WeChat mini-program to allow users to discover product information by scanning the QR codes on each item.