It’s no secret that Gap provides its customers with generous discounts, which are well-received and instrumental in driving footfall. To reduce the depth and blanket nature of these discounts, we needed to become more relevant. Customers will always embrace discounts, but we needed to create more value within the relationship and broaden the conversation between Gap and its customers. 

Previously, Gap had little visibility of their customers’ behaviour and buying habits. Only by gathering this data, could we show them who their high frequency customers are and importantly, what they are buying. This data would not only allow us to ensure that these valuable customers return to the store – reducing the reliance on deep discounts – but also help Gap understand patterns of behaviour that could then inform product, pricing and stocking decisions.

At the heart of Gap+ is an app that learns as you shop. Every visit, interaction or purchase adds to the customer’s profile, resulting in more personalised engagements and ‘fashion moments’ – everything from offers and product films based on past purchases or style preferences to individualised style guides. Gap+ continually learns, with the aim to deliver a 1-2-1 shopping experience, in-store, at home or anywhere the customer wishes. Rather counter-intuitively – given the existing and generous discounts in place – members joining the scheme received an additional 5% discount. In return, Gap, for the first time, was able to act on this knowledge.

The Results

Gap+ had an immediate impact – and has quickly grown to almost 1 million members across the UK, France and Italy – meaning sizeable revenue and importantly margin protection. We have seen an increase in frequency of visit – with Gap+ members making a second visit within just 37 days – compared to non-members who visit, on average, once every 107 days. Members are putting additional items in their basket when they shop, and their average transaction value has grown to 35% higher than non-members.

We identified that denim could be a fantastic revenue driver for Gap if given the focus and attention it needed. Our challenge was to get existing Gap customers to buy more denim using their Gap+ app, by incentivising repeat purchase.

Denim is a huge part of Gap’s heritage – and even in today’s UK market, it remains our 5th most popular jeans store. We used the enduring popularity of these high-value items as a hook to drive our European shoppers in store and increase spend. Our mechanic was ‘buy five, get the sixth free’.

We developed Denim Addict – a secret(ish) section in the app that records when you buy a piece of denim. For every pair of jeans purchased, you get a digital stamp to add to your in-app collector card. And, when you get to five stamps, you get your sixth pair of jeans for free.  

The Results

Denim Addict has generated over £1m revenue from 44,600 denim items purchased in the scheme – producing an ROI of £33.45 per member on a cost of 43p on denim sales alone.

Denim Addicts members spent an average of £14.38 more than solely Gap+ app users. Even on free jeans redemption store visits, 44% purchased additional items.