GAP's Performance Slipped Again, Aiming At China's Two Or Three Tier Cities.

Recently, american apparel retailers

The first quarter revenue fell 6%, according to the financial report.

It also announced that it would close 75 stores outside Old Navy and Banana Republic outside North America and pay more attention to potential areas.

As of the first quarter of April 30, 2016, the performance of GAP, the US apparel retailer, slipped again. Reporters learned that this is the five consecutive quarterly jump in GAP.

According to the results of the financial report, the GAP income in the first quarter dropped from US $3 billion 660 million in the same period last year to US $3 billion 440 million, less than US $3 billion 540 million in market expectations, and dropped by nearly 6%.

The same store opened more than 5% stores a year ago, compared with a 2.6% decline.

By brand classification, the sales of the same brand GAP decreased by 3%, Banana Republic decreased by 11%, and Old Navy decreased by 6%.

GAP also said that it might not achieve its annual profit target earlier.

To this end, GAP announced that it will close 53 Japanese Old Navy stores and 22 Banana Republic stores.

The store is expected to save $275 million in pre tax expenses for GAP and provide 200 improvement points for the group's operating margin.

At present, GAP has 3700 stores in the world, and owns five brands: GAP, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta.

Industry analysts believe that, like other

Similarly, sales of GAP group have been greatly affected by the competition pressure from online fashion retailers, the slowdown in overall consumption and the decline in department stores' traffic.

GAP Group believes that the Old Navy brand will be temporarily focused on North America and Mexico and China at the core of the group headquarters, as well as international franchising business.

Japan is still an important market although it is heavily closed in the Japanese market.

GAP group has about 200 GAP and Banana Republic stores in Japan.

According to the introduction, GAP is optimistic about the Chinese market and has set its sights on China's two or three tier cities.

While closing the world, GAP said it will open 40 new stores in China this year.

Related people pointed out that in order to maintain growth in performance, fast fashion brands only expand the number of categories and shops.

When the stores in the first tier cities are saturated, new stores can only be opened to the two or three tier cities.

Art Peck, chief executive of GAP group, who took office in February 2015, said at the annual shareholders' meeting that the future group might consider entering Amazon to seek recovery.

In fact, the group has been considering opportunities outside the traditional stores.

The entire garment is developing rapidly, so we need to accelerate the pace of change, including expanding product size and enhancing global operational capability.

If we can seize every opportunity to explore our strategic advantages, GAP's brand can take advantage of the company's ability to serve consumers in all regions and channels. "

In fact, in the international fast fashion brand, GAP belongs to an earlier group of brands that access online shopping. In 2010, it started working with the Chinese local company Shanghai Yi Shang to replace the operation online business. From 2012 to 2013, GAP online performance increased significantly.

In the GAP's earnings report up to February 1, 2014, the group's annual online sales amounted to US $2 billion 260 million, an increase of 21%.

But in the subsequent quarterly report, the performance gradually declined.

Analysts believe that GAP is facing competition from fast fashion companies such as H&M and UNIQLO. GAP is slightly inferior in the speed of the supply chain. It has not been able to respond to the fashion trend in a timely fashion, and GAP's clothing design is not good enough, and its brand appeal is not as good as before.

It is reported that recently, UnionPay business and GAP have reached a comprehensive strategic cooperation to provide nearly 130 GAP stores nationwide with integrated payment solutions based on traditional bank card receipts.

It is understood that the POS terminal will be opened by GAP.

"Mode not only accepts the traditional bank card payment, but also accepts the mobile phone scan code payment and the Pay, Samsung Pay and other" Pay ", including the NFC mobile payment in the near field.

In addition, through the UnionPay business and the brand cross regional online return service, the customers of the future GAP want to return the goods, so long as they choose the nearest store, they can complete the replacement and return. There is nothing to do with the purchase in the field. They can return the goods in any GAP store in the whole country.