The changes are significant. First, there’s a sharper delineation of the genders, including separate entrances into the women’s and men’s departments, both framed in Gap’s signature blue.
For further shopping ease, merchandise is subdivided into a gallery of shops, each roughly 250 to 300 square feet and extending about two thirds of the way through the store. They’re organized by occasion dressing, so for example, there are shops for clothes to wear to work, seasonal accessories, men’s summer weekend “fundamentals,” and premium denims and striped shirts for evenings out.
Denim is in the rear, occupying about 30 percent of the space, and includes shelving units densely packed with product next to the fitting rooms for quick access by the salesclerks. There is also a long denim table and a seating area, creating a residential atmosphere.
“The art gallery metaphor really carried us. Product is truly the art,” said Christopher Hufnagel, vice president, Gap brand store experience, during an exclusive tour of a prototype in the Park Meadows Mall, in Littleton, Colo., just outside Denver. The remodeled 6,500-square-foot unit devotes 60 percent of the space to women’s, 40 percent to men’s.
Compared with the cold, laminated and wide-open look of current stores, where men’s and women’s tend to bleed together, there’s a warmer, woodsy atmosphere with timeless hickory fixtures, terrazzo marble tile and dark oak floors, and 26 custom-sculpted mannequins in four poses. Like a gallery, it has directed, 8-degree track lighting for controlled illumination on key items and outfits.
Fitting rooms have carpeting, dimmers, lights to signal associates for help, a lounge area, and chalkboards so associates can write down a customer’s name for a personal touch. Also, the cash wraps have been redesigned with individual work stations for each associate, so they don’t bump into each other scrambling for shopping bags, boxes or telephones.
Later this year, stores in the Hartford and San Diego markets will be converted, and stores in another five to 10 markets will be overhauled in 2006, albeit there will be tweaking of the design over time as feedback comes in. Certain locations slated for remodeling due to landlord agreements will also be converted, including the unit on 59th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan later this year.
The prototype has been in development for 13 months, including a 24-day world tour by the Gap team visiting other stores, restaurants, theme parks and museums for ideas and inspiration, and bringing back 4,000 photos of Selfridges, Disney parks, Prada, and other stops on the route.
“We really began to dissect the components of what made for a great customer experience,” said Hufnagel. A big realization was that men and women should be serviced differently, even in a big chain, and that men are on “more of a procurement mission,” whereas women want shopping to be a social experience where the merchandise changes often and there’s a greater sense of discovery, Hufnagel explained. “You can’t be quite so conceptual with men, whereas with women you can be more emotional.”
The seven prototypes, which were closed for remodeling since January, are in Aspen Grove, Littleton, Chapel Hill, Colorado Springs, Cherry Creek, Denver, and Broomfield.
I took a look through the slideshow, what I saw of the sample designs so far, I did not like.
