What you’ll read: a PostFunnel breakdown of Gap’s website from 1997 to today.
As a quick peek through PostFunnel’s archives will tell you, the marketing team over at The Gap, Inc. is always up to something.
While the brand has had its fair share of ups and downs over the years, the team is always looking to innovate their marketing efforts..
The company’s recent acquisition of Drapr shows just how dedicated they are to taking progressive measures, specifically with regard to ecommerce.
With this in mind, we decided to take a look back at the evolution of Gap’s website — starting with the early days of modern ecommerce.
Gap.com in 1997: A Powerful Start
The 1997 version of The Gap’s website is impressive.
While it’s dated by today’s standards, it’s miles ahead of other companie’s sites we’ve reviewed so far.
For one thing, there’s surprisingly strategic use of screen and white space. The content seems to have been much more intentionally placed on Gap’s homepage.
It’s also easy to navigate.it’s to . That said, while much of the homepage’s content is straightforward , the plaintext, directorydoesn’t hold our interest and adds clutter to the homepage.
Individual sections are just as navigable — albeit a bit plain.
The actual product page, on the other hand, is quite detailed and engaging.
Unfortunately, Gap didn’t archive their images.
Each of these subsections provides opportunities for visitors to engage and interact with The Gap in ways that are pretty progressive for 1997. All in all, Gap’s website started out on the right foot.
Gap.com in 2001: A Streamlined Facelift
For the most part, Gap’s website looks e less cluttered by 2001.
There’s a much more intentional use of space along with better use of color. They also substantially trimmed down the number of links on the homepage — allowing for more broad, yet focused browsing.
Still, the section on “hassle-free online shopping” seems out of place. There are definitely better ways the team could have presented this important information.
Product category pages look nearly identical to the homepage, with content tweaked as appropriate.
Unfortunately, due to a glitch involving cookies and archiving, we can’t access much more of the site.
It seems that in order to access the rest of Gap.com, visitors had to approve cookies. While that does us no good for our current purposes, it’s also a reminder that that kind of thing doesn’t fly anymore.
Gap.com in 2007: A Great Leap Forward
Gap’s website continued to evolve over the years, especially in terms of their design.
At this point, every element of the homepage is formatted and customized for functionality and aesthetics.
The focus is more in line with today’s ecommerce standards;promoting merchandise. From the homepage, visitors can check out everything from trending styles and seasonal outfits to everyday wear. Overall, it allows for more purposeful browsing — and primes visitors to make a purchase right off the bat.
Note the new sidebar on all product category pages, allowing customers to navigate directly to the pages they’re looking for. This, in addition to the static header for more broad browsing makes for a more user-friendly experience.
Other product category and product listing pages are pretty standard, providing an overview of related products for customers to check out.
However, the filtering options aren’t great yet.. They’re missing the option to sort by price and popularity.
We can’t say much about the actual product pages, as they aren’t properly archived. What we do know is these pages allowed customers to zoom in on product images for a more detailed preview of their clothing, a win for sure. These pages also showcased related and recommended products for customers.
Overall, Gap’s website seems pretty standard for the time.
Gap.com in 2012: Moving Toward a Modern Look
The next iteration of Gap’s website takes on a more modern feel.
The longform nature of the homepage allows the team to pack the page with information and multiple calls-to-action — all without overloading the visitor.
Again, Gap’s products are the center of attention.
This time, the team’s product-related content is more engaging: they’re promoting user-generated content.
As shown above, Gap’s community could curate styles and design products. The fact that Gap and Threadless continue their partnership to this day proves just how impactful this improvement has been.
At this time, Gap shifts to social media and multichannel marketing, promoting its Facebook and Twitter pages along with their mobile app.
Product category pages also took on a more longform look, as well.
Product collections lead to more cross-selling opportunities — and more value for the customer, of course.
Unfortunately can’t check out the actual product pages.
Gap.com in 2018: A Streamlined, Yet Standard Experience
The 2018 version of Gap.com was perhaps its sleekest, both in appearance and usability.
It’s cleaner, crisper, and overall more pleasant to browse through. Even the simple addition of a hoverable dropdown menu improves the UX .
Product category pages nowallow for more focused shopping via more advanced filtering options, along with more style-based categorization.
Once again, Gap’s actual product pages are unavailable.
This version of Gap.com doesn’t offer all that much in terms of unique, branded experiences. In focusing so heavily on promoting products, the team seemingly forgot to add any kind of personality to the website.
Worse yet, there’s no user-generated content and interactivity. In addition to losing its sense of personality, Gap of 2018 is disconnected from its audience.
In any case, 2018 was actually a good year for Gap’s online sales. Whatever they were doing — they seem to have been doing it right.
Gap.com Today: A Potentially Overwhelming Experience
Finally, let’s take a look at what Gap’s website looks like today.
Gap’s team took the notion of longform homepages and ran with it — perhaps a bit too far. They seem to have forgotten that the point of the longform homepage is to spread components out — not pack content in.
The homepage is too busy.
Just look at what happens the first time you visit the site:
Not only are two overlays active at the same time, but one of them overlaps the other. Even if a visitor wants to engage with the popup,, they’re unable to do so without closing the other one.
That doesn’t make for a good first experience.
The current version of the site offers much more of the unique, branded experiences that past versions were missing. But with so much going on from the get-go, visitors may miss out on these experiences altogether.
Looking at product category and product pages (which we can finally view!), we’re seeing major improvements in terms of browsability and shoppability.
Gap has also shifted their focus back onto the human side of their brand, as shown by its renewed commitment to change and their newfound Gap for Good initiative.
Overall, we’re glad to see the personality and humanity come back into Gap.com. And we’re equally impressed with the navigability and functionality of the team’s ecommerce pages.
Still, the distracting — and even invasive — homepage begs whether or not the customer will ever see the rest of the site.
What’s Next for Gap.com?
Gap has some pretty clear plans for the future with regard to ecommerce.
With the recent acquisition of Drapr, it’s likely Gap will be adding more interactivity to its website and overall ecommerce experience.
At any rate, one thing is certain:
Gap’s ecommerce team will continue innovating the ever-changing world of fashion.