Walmart and Gap Partner to Create Home Goods Brand
Walmart and Gap have inked a multiyear deal to create a home goods brand, as the discounter looks to drive more online sales and the apparel retailer hopes to strengthen its brand among shoppers, reports CNBC. The brand, Gap Home, will launch exclusively on Walmart’s website on June 24, and eventually bring the most popular items to some of the big-box retailer’s stores. It will start with about 400 pieces of bedding, bath and decorative accessories. Both companies said the brand is the start of a long-term partnership.
“It’s not a capsule collection,” Anthony Soohoo, Walmart’s executive vice president for home, said about the partnership. “It's a relationship that we believe we want to build, that is enduring for us.”
Total Retail's Take: According to a company press release, Gap is the first fashion retailer to partner with Walmart in the home space, delivering a multiyear partnership to offer timeless American style for modern living. Partnerships can elevate even already large and well-known retailers into new territory. Such is the hope for this collaboration.
“Walmart is a global leader in the home space with extensive digital reach and distribution, and this partnership enables Gap to introduce a new category in a smart, scalable way,” said Gap President and CEO Mark Breitbard.
This partnership is also part of Walmart's strategy to expand its home assortment "to bring high-quality, stylish home goods and decor to customers at an unbelievable value," said Soohoo. "Gap Home is the latest example of how we’ll deliver on that mission." The discounter is also riffing off of a strategy of its big-box rival, Target, which has gained traction with exclusive brands and collaborations. Gap Inc. CEO Sonia Syngal thinks Walmart is the perfect partner for the apparel retailer as it embarks on a new chapter, she told CNBC. “We’re excited about the scale of Walmart, coupled with the cool of Gap.”
Kristina Stidham is the digital content director at Total Retail and sister brands Women in Retail Leadership Circle and Women Leading Travel & Hospitality at NAPCO Media. She is passionate about digital media and handles video, podcast and virtual event production for all brands. You can often find her at WIRLC, TR, WLT&H or industry events with her camera and podcasting equipment—or at home on Zoom—recording interviews with thought leaders and business executives.
Kristina holds a B.A. in Media Studies and Production from the Temple University Klein College of Media and Communication in Philadelphia. Go Owls! When she's not in the office, she loves to go on long walks, sing around the house, hangout with her family and two pet guinea pigs, and travel to new places.
