In 1969, Don Fisher was having difficulty finding the right size of Levi’s jeans in traditional clothing stores. His solution was quite radical. Together with his wife Doris, he opened his own store, The Gap, selling a large selection of the product Fisher had found so hard to buy.
A year earlier, across the Atlantic, an Italian family business called Benetton, had opened its first store, entering the mass fashion market with a slightly different approach. Rather than branded clothes, Benetton began by selling knitwear they made themselves.
From these humble beginnings, both The Gap and Benetton went on to become hugely successful fashion retailers. At one time, their superiority within the sector was such that they assumed the status of “category killers” – chains so big that they threaten the survival of smaller competitors.
A key feature of category killers – other famous examples include Toys “R” Us, Home Depot and Staples – is the convenient availability of specific, affordable products. It is a retail format based on a clear understanding of what it is the customer wants and satisfying that demand at low cost.
With the announcement this summer that Gap would close all its stores in UK and Ireland, and with Benetton no longer at the frontier of cool, the idea of these brands once being so dominant seems fairly strange.
But the influence of these category killers on today’s fashion industry remains, with a history that is still relevant to current leading players like Primark, ASOS and Boohoo at a time of huge flux in the retail landscape and immense pressure on established supply chains.
From the very beginning, for example, The Gap had a crystal clear vision of its customer base. Opening the first store close to San Francisco State University, Fisher wanted to appeal to college students and the counterculture generation.
To attract them, early Gap stores also sold records, but these were soon dropped. Although prices were not discounted, they were priced moderately and keen enough to convince that core demographic to shop there.
Benetton, meanwhile, capitalised on its initial popularity by expanding rapidly in the 1970s. Having multiple stores in a small area meant the company could dominate local markets, generate high sales volume and efficiently manage their distribution network.
