GAP: Analysis of the Dubai Mystery Shopping
Al Tayer Group plans to open about 25 Gap stores by 2010. The first Gap stores opened in the later part of 2006. ————————————————- GAP – Competitive intelligence To identify the competitive intelligence of GAP, we identified the following main clothing retail brands. We went to their stores and made the observations as detailed below: 1.
Aeropostale: is an American clothing retail chain that mostly sells casual clothing with over 900 stores in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Arab Emirates.
Their stores are usually located in shopping malls and large marketing areas. They have recently launched a line for kids also. We made the following observations about their store: * They do not have a kid’s section * The space utilization was not done properly. The store looked very congested * Aesthetic sense was not good * There were lot of varieties in design * The clothes were mostly affordable * Lot of bright colored clothes were available ( as compared to GAP) * Sale sign was prominently visible * Location of store was not that good as compared to GAP.
It was on the first floor corner side of Dubai mall * They were doing lot of advertisements in the mall itself to increase awareness of their sales * Out of Zara, GAP and them, their service was the best as customer service representatives were pro-active and approached the customers themselves without asking 2. ZARA: Zara is the flagship chain store of Inditex Group owned by Spanish tycoon Amancio Ortega. The group is headquartered in Galicia, Spain. Their USP is that they need just 2 weeks to develop a new product whereas the industry average of 6 months.
Its most unusual strategy is its policy of almost zero advertising.
We made the following observations about their store: * Sale sign was not prominent * There were 3 sections – Men’s section, Female’s section and Kid’s section * Prices are comparatively higher * They were trying to cross-sell by putting shoes, pants and shoes at one place * Their customer care representatives were not pro-active 3. H&M: H&M offers fashion and quality at the best price through a broad and varied range of fashion. The collections are extensive and replenished within a day. Hence, customers can always find something new at H&M.
It is a Swedish clothing company and cater to the following segment – women, men, teenagers and children. It has around 2,000 stores in 37 different countries and employs around 76,000 people.
Observations about their store are: * Display of clothes through main windows was prominent * Arrangement of clothes in H&M was very systematic * Clothes on sale were not segregated and were mixed with fresh arrivals ————————————————- Services Following are few of the prime intangible services that we identified in the mystery shopping exercise: 1.
