Launched in 2006 as an online shoe store, Piperlime accounted for less than 1% of Gap’s sales.

(Bloomberg) — Gap Inc. 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, No. 19 in the 2014 Internet Retailer Top 500, introduced Piperlime in 2006 as an online shoe store before turning it into a boutique-style apparel web site 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.

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E-commerce accounted for 15.6% of Gap Inc.’s sales in its fiscal third quarter, which ended Nov. 1.

 

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