GAP Global CEO Murphy: What Next Steps Plan

GAP Beijing APM flagship store opened

November 23rd was the 10th day when GAP, the first clothing retailer in the United States, opened a store in China. Next to the GAP store in Wangfujing, Beijing, next to another world-famous fast-fashion brand, Zara from Spain, is also a store of more than 1,000 square meters.

Glenn Murphy, the global CEO of GAP, visited the four stores opened in China. He specifically went to San Francisco from San Francisco and accepted an exclusive interview on the 23rd.

Two years before making the decision to enter China, Glen Murphy described his status as always worrying. He had walked alone on the streets of Shanghai without accompaniment two years ago and he personally experienced the market. At the time, H&M and Zara had already made small tests in China.

On November 22nd, GAP opened two stores in Beijing on the ninth day. After arriving at the Capital Airport from Shanghai, Glen Murphy directly drove to the GAP shop in Joy City, Chaoyang North Road, and spent two and a half hours with the team. After that, Glenn Murphy went to another store in Wangfujing with “extremely crowded traffic”.

Model show GAP autumn and winter new products

In Wangfujing's GAP store, people are tempted to move, Chinese consumers are mostly, and there are also foreign consumers. Often heard the salesman called "out of stock" cries. A pair of American couples in the store after long gestures found that the pricing of GAP in China is converted into US dollars at the current exchange rate, which is cheaper than in the United States. A Chinese family came in admiration. It has long been known that GAP is multi-handed by Americans. The popularity of GAP in Beijing was unexpected to the industry, but this was only the beginning. I believe that only Zara, separated by a wall, will soon have new countermeasures.

Glen Murphy said that he still has been worrying about worrying about what other people are doing and what GAP has not done yet. He is worried about what the next plan is.

At present, GAP has four stores in China, and has launched a shopping website, trying to make up for the market outside of Beijing and Shanghai by e-commerce. Yang Deming, president of GAP Greater China, is a talent that GAP spend heavily to command the Chinese market. He said that next month, the shopping website will be promoted to Hong Kong. Next year, GAP stores in Beijing and Shanghai will be expanded, but Yang said that the number is inconvenient. He said that the next Chinese city to be entered by GAP must be Hong Kong.

Glen Murphy does not want to copy the experience of the US market into the Chinese market. He believes that the most important thing for GAP is brand continuity rather than continuity, and hopes that consumers will go into Milan’s GAP and into Wangfujing. With GAP, the feelings are completely different. Every market store must have localization factors.

It is purely coincidental that GAP became a neighbor with Zara in Wangfujing. According to Glen Murphy, in any market, the decision of site selection is considered independently and is not affected by other factors.

He gave an example. GAP is adjacent to the Apple store in Hong Kong Plaza in Shanghai. Although Apple’s headquarters in San Francisco is only a 30-minute walk from the headquarters of GAP in San Francisco, the two parties did not conduct any prior consultation on site selection. Glen Murphy said, but now found that the Shanghai consumer response to GAP and Apple's neighbors is very good, that the same is the two famous brands from the United States, wandering together is very good.

At present, in China, GAP competitors include Zardan and other Chinese domestic brands in addition to the “neighbor” Zara. Glen Murphy said that the Zara shop next door to GAP has been very successful and hopes to be able to compete with them in the future.