One year after its release, Gap has decided to leave his business retail media, GPS Media, with the aim of focusing and investing in its B2B logistics services and personalized clothing. This has been confirmed by a spokesperson for the company Business Insider: «Retail Media was part of the company’s test-and-learn culture.”.
«Our B2B team focuses on the companies with the strongest demand and the greatest momentum. At this time, these include GPS Platform Serviceswhich provides warehousing and logistics as a service, and gps apparelwhich develops custom uniform programs for global brands“, explained the spokesman. “Both leverage Gap’s supply chain, technical and digital capabilities, as well as customer insights. Although we are still in the early stages, we are excited about its prospects.“said the spokesperson.
After learning of Gap’s decision, Lindell Bennett, Chief Revenue Officer at Cooler Screens Retail Media Network Providerbelieves that Gap faced “significant challenges” to compete for Retail Media dollars in an increasingly crowded field. “First of all, they only sell their own brands; and second, the largest players in Retail Media (Amazon, Walmart) sell in multiple categories and have a greater scale online. Third, I don’t know what assets Gap has to differentiate itself. Is it your audience? Is it data?»has apostilled Bennettwhile asserting that “it was hard to see how brands could use the Gap to amplify their own message or grow their audience”given that “Gap is about Gap, not about other brands”.
According to eMarketer he Retail Media spending will increase by 31.4% this year 2023reaching 61,150 million dollars, which represents almost 20% of digital advertising investment.
Gap He experienced a complicated 2022 with losses and a sharp drop in sales. As part of his efforts to build the business and improve its profitability, in November of last year, Gap announced an alliance with Amazon to distribute their collections through Amazon Fashion in the United States and Canada with the aim of increasing its reach and speed of delivery. The deal, the first between both companiesincluded the sale of basic products, t-shirts, pants and pajamas, both for adults and children, and the distribution of the Gap baby lineof fashion and childcare products.