Is there hope for Gap in China? - Janet Carmosky

Janet Carmosky via Flickr

Janet Carmosky kicks off another debate on US companies entering the China market: is US mall stalwart Gap having a chance in fashionable China, she wonders in the China Business Network.

Despite having lived in the USA for 8 years now, on any given day I am likely to be wearing something purchased on my last trip to Shanghai or Beijing. Quite frankly, the clothes in America are Really Really Boring. If I, as an American, find Gap clothes boring, what will the consumers who have grown up in a place like Shanghai think? Where’s the bling, the prints and colors, the fabrics that move, and patterns that pop?
Gap, here’s hoping your people on the ground see the markets in Shanghai and Beijing as a challenge to Gap’s design, branding, operations, and most of all, HR and organizational mettle. Because “cornerstone” sounds altogether too corporate a term to describe what will need to be an all out war for share in the world’s toughest fashion retail market.

More on Gap's hope and fear in China at the China Business Network.

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Janet Carmosky is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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