TRENDSETTERS: International Retailer Gap, Inc. Shares its Social Media Lessons

Gap, the retail brand that embodies cool American style, certainly made news last year when it used Facebook to announce plans for a new logo. Overwhelming consumer feedback caused the company to revert to the original emblem it’s had for over 40 years. Yet that social media experiment is just one of many in Gap’s efforts to better connect with consumers and change the way their customers shop, find deals and stay loyal.

At last week's ANA Digital & Social Media Conference presented by Meredith, two of Gap, Inc.'s executives -- Chris Gayton, Senior Director of Marketing and Summer Riley, Director of Customer Relationship Marketing -- shared some the company’s extraordinary successes in the digital and social media space.

According to Chris Gayton, “In the past, the store was the first destination in the path to the consumer, and associates closed the deal. Today, consumers discover, engage and advocate at a speed never imagined. Our customers now come into a store with ratings, reviews, web coupons, friends’ suggestions, and co-branded emails; they have pre-shopped. Many now use their mobile devices in-store to compare prices, yelp things, get discounts, post reviews and talk about an experience.”
Gap Brand is also taking advantage of location-based technology to be "SoLoMo" (or social, local and mobile). They have teamed with Foursquare and with Facebook Places and Deals for a highly successful one-day free jeans giveaway. The recent launch of gapmyprice.com is another way the retailer has offered customers an opportunity to make a deal and bid their own price for Gap products.

Yet the Groupon deal, where Gap became the first US brand to launch a national program with Groupon, was "an insane experience," says Summer Riley. Gap achieved record sales in one day. Chicago-headquartered Groupon features a daily deal on "the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy" in 43 countries. The company offers one "Groupon" ("group coupon") per day in each of the markets it serves.
Summer elaborated, "We used Groupon for the launch of our new black pants with a $25 voucher worth $50 in merchandise across 850 stores. During the height of back-to-school shopping, we were selling 10 Groupons a second or 435,000 that first day while the site kept crashing. This was the biggest Groupon deal at the time."

When asked if customers were spending beyond coupons, Chris Gayton admitted that these programs are not only creating overall loyalty, but facebook fans average higher transactions when shopping gap.com.

The next step for Gap is a global digital strategy with a new global office based in New York. Given the retailer’s expansion, the company wants to insure that it doesn’t interpret efforts in China or Dubai through a North American lens.

Today, Gap Inc. is comprised of five specialty retail brands -- Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta -- comprising about 3,100 company-operated stores, 175 franchise stores and 134,000 employees. Since 2010, the company has expanded its global e-commerce to more than 80 countries.