US fashion label Gap has reported further growth in its ecommerce sales in the second quarter – up by 27% to $466m from $367m in the same quarter in 2012.
The company, which also owns the Banana Republic, Piperlime, Athleta and Intermix stores, attributed the web sales increase to its “omnichannel platform for consumers, inclusive of ship-from-store, find-in-store and reserve-in-store capabilities.”
With the latest boost in its ecommerce numbers, the web currently accounts for 12% of Gap’s total sales, up from 10.3% in Q2 last year. Total global sales in Q2 stood at $3.87bn, up 8% year-on-year. Of this increase, comparable stores sales were up 5%. The revenue figures generated net income of $303m, up by a quater on $243m in the second quarter last year.
Gap’s first-half numbers to 3 August included ecommerce accounting for 12.8% of total sales, compared with 10.9% in the same period of 2012.
Gap has had a dedicated ecommerce offer in the UK and Europe since 2010, but no specific figures were released about its performance in these markets.
The company continues to pursue an omnichannel growth strategy in all markets. The company ended the quarter with 10 Old Navy stores in Japan, on track to open 15 to 20 stores for the year. Gap continued to expand its Gap stores in mainland China, opening six further stores to take the total number of stores to 55. In addition, the company has said it will bring its Gap brand to Taiwan with its first store opening in the first half of 2014, along with a Gap ecommerce site. San Francisco-headquartered Gap opened six Athleta stores in the second quarter, for a total of 46 stores open to date, and that particular brand is on pace to end fiscal 2013 with about 65 stores.
