Gap Turns Robson Street Upside Down
November 9th, 2009 | Published in Blog | 3 Comments
Report provided by the CNW Group and Cossette West.
Traffic came to a standstill on Thursday as passersby stopped to see Robson Street transformed. There were upside down cars, trees, fire hydrants, bikes and a hot dog cart lining the street leading to the Gap store at 1121 Robson. The store itself had also been transformed–from the upside down Gap logo out front to merchandise and mannequins hanging from the ceilings inside.
The upside-down experience was all part of the launch of a new program being piloted at the ten Gap brand stores in and around Vancouver. The program, called Sprize, offers a very simple, yet radical way to give customers assurance that they will get the best price no matter when they buy and they no longer have to wait for the product to go on sale. It is a complete reversal of how customers shop today and with this pilot, Gap is essentially “turning shopping on its head”.
Customers are invited to sign up for free in the store. Once the customer becomes a member, all of the customer’s program purchases will be tracked. If the price of any purchased items drops within 45 days after the purchase date, the customer automatically get credited the difference to their Sprize card. Customers can use this ‘SprizeMoney’ to purchase merchandise in the pilot stores for up to a year from the date of issuance. Only purchases made in the 10 Vancouver area stores qualify for the program.
Customers can enrol in the program using handheld devices only in the 10 participating Gap brand stores. When they receive a credit, they’ll be notified by email. Customers will also be able to log in to mysprize.com starting in mid-November to monitor their credit balance.
“We are excited to be piloting this program in Vancouver” said Scott Key, Senior Vice President of Customer Relationship Management at Gap Inc., “Vancouver was one of our first retail locations to open outside of the U.S. It’s always been a very successful market for Gap and the performance of the SPRIZE program here will inform how and when we roll out SPRIZE to other stores. We think our Vancouver customers are going to appreciate this exclusive sneak peek at the program, and we hope they enjoy the SPRIZE.”
November 10th, 2009
That is AMAZING.
I used to do the visual merchandising at Gap Pacific Centre and getting those mannequins to stand right-side-up through the tiny hole in their leg was a feat in itself!
It’s really great when stores knock your socks off with displays.
November 21st, 2009
First of all the visual merchandising is AMAZING! What a feat– it’s definitely eye catching!! The idea of Sprize is really smart; much easier than a price adjustment and I think would really help encourage people to shop!
xoxo
December 21st, 2009
Wow, that is such an incredible concept. And what a unique way to market it!