Gap Preps Online Shoe Business

Clothing retailer announces plans to enter the online footwear race with an e-commerce offering set to debut by the holiday season.

Gap said today they were planning to launch a new online footwear business in time for the 2006 holiday season. The new online offering will sell a broad assortment of footwear offerings from designer to casual brands.

Online footwear is growing nearly 15 percent annually and will become a $5.5 billion market by 2010, according to analysis conducted by Forrester Research in 2005 and highlighted by Gap. Agreements with dozens of leading footwear brands have been signed to date for Gap’s online foot venture. Other details will be announced a later date.

“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 (e-commerce division), in a statement. “Customers will be able to put together complete looks online from head to toe.”