America Online signed a three-year commerce and
marketing agreement that will bring Gap Inc.’s brands — Gap, Banana Republic
and Old Navy to the Shop@AOL marketplace.
The agreement gives Gap Inc. anchor status and other premier placements
within each of America Online’s e-commerce destinations: Shop@AOL.com, Shop@Netscape.com and
Shop@CompuServe.
Gap brands will have prominent positions in the Men’s and Women’s areas of
the Apparel Department as well as in the Babies, Kids, and Teen Boys and
Girls apparel areas. Financial arrangements were not disclosed.
Gap’s newest concept, GapBody, will also be promoted in the Lingerie area.
“This relationship will provide a whole new level of ease and accessibility
in online shopping,” said Jeanne Jackson, CEO of Gap Inc. Direct.
The new Shop@AOL marketplace began rolling out to consumers in mid-July with
the introduction of the Apparel and Kids areas, and will culminate with the
introduction of other new shopping services in October.
Gap Inc. operates more than 2,600 brick-and-mortar stores in the United
States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan, with 1998 sales of
about $9.1 billion.