Gap Inc. plans to expand e-commerce sales and grow its international stores presence significantly in the next three years. Additional online sales of $1 billion annually by 2016 are possible by coordinating web and store sales and personalization, chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy told attendees at the Goldman Sachs Global Retailing Conference earlier this month.

“We want to add approximately 1,000 stores and about $1 billion in online sales by 2016,” Murphy told the audience. “With growth year to date at 27%, do the math. There’s no way we can’t get to that number.”

Gap reported online sales of $1.927 billion for the 53-week fiscal year ended Feb. 2, up 23.5% from $1.560 billion in the 52 weeks ended Jan. 28, 2012. Web sales represented 12% of $15.651 billion in total sales in fiscal 2012, compared with 11% during the prior year.

The company plans to reach its e-commerce goal by expanding online and in-store services, including ship from store, find in store and reserve in store, as well as by personalizing its web site for each visitor based on past visits and transactions.

Gap began testing in-store pickup in Chicago and San Francisco in June and now also is offering in those cities a reserve-in-store service that enables customers to reserve apparel online. Gap will hold the products in a fitting room or at the cash register in a nearby store for 24 hours.

The find-in-store service is now available for Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta, Piperlime brands in North America and enables a shopper to use a mobile device to check stores in a given radius for product size and color and determine if it’s in stock, or if supply is limited or not available. Ship-from-store, now available at Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Athleta stores, enables consumers to tap inventory that’s not reflected in online inventory status at present, Murphy said.

Global store expansion plans include opening 18-20 Old Navy stores in Japan this year and up to 100 outlet stores in China in the next four to five years, Murphy said. Seven outlet stores are set to open this year in China.

Gap Inc. is the parent of Gap Inc. Direct, No. 19 in Internet Retailer’s 2013 Top 500 Guide.

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