Gap Will Close Piperlime Unit as Peck Prepares to Take Reins

By Renee Dudley  

Photographer: Peter Foley/Bloomberg

Gap Inc. plans to close Piperlime.

Gap Inc. (GPS) plans to close Piperlime, its predominantly online designer-fashion unit, as Art Peck prepares to take the reins as chief executive officer.
Piperlime’s annual sales were under $100 million, accounting for less than 1 percent of its parent company’s revenue, San Francisco-based Gap said Friday in a statement. Gap didn’t specify the costs of shutdown, scheduled to be completed by the end of April, saying they aren’t material to its financial results.
Gap introduced Piperlime in 2006 as an online
shoe store before turning it into a boutique-style apparel website that featured designer brands and celebrity stylists. The unit even made the leap into the brick-and-mortar world in 2012 with a store in Manhattan.
“We plan to keep on pushing new ideas and look forward to seeing how we can apply what we’ve learned to the rest of the company,” Peck said in the statement.
Peck, who led Gap’s growth, innovation and digital unit, takes over as CEO next month.