SAN FRANCISCO, May 22 (UPI) -- Popular clothing franchise Gap Inc. announced plans to launch a new online footwear business come 2006 holiday season.
The new venture will be run by its e-commerce division, Gap Inc. Direct, which will feature women, men, and children's footwear.
"The highly fragmented, rapidly growing online footwear market offers a tremendous opportunity for Gap Inc. to leverage our expertise in e-commerce, merchandising and marketing to deliver a distinct fashion point of view," said Toby Lenk, president of Gap Inc. Direct. "Customers will be able to put together complete looks online from head to toe."
And the online footwear business is looking good, according to Forrester Research in 2005, online footwear is growing nearly 15 percent annually and will become a $5.5 billion market by 2010, while analysts from Gap say their online customer bases already buy shoes online.
"Almost two-thirds of our online customers surveyed last year said that they would buy shoes online from Gap Inc.," Lenk added. "Gap.com, OldNavy.com and BananaRepublic.com are all consistently among the top 10 specialty apparel sites in terms of traffic, so we believe we already have an active and loyal customer base for online footwear."
