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Gap Inc.'s Hill City offers unique customer experiences from the store to the road

A 12-month pop-up for menswear brand, Hill City, has led to a physical storefront and a mobile shop. And, while the customer experiences are all different, the goal of each is very much the same — providing customers what they want and need.

November 14, 2019 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com

Just a little over a year ago, a premium menswear start-up launched online-only and then, this past October, established a pop-up in San Francisco's Hayes Valley neighborhood with the product philosophy to sell high-performance athletic wear in a minimalist street style.

An iPhone served as the purchase transaction vehicle, with the space providing an opportunity to engage with the local community. But the retail customer experience philosophy is now much more complex in terms of scope, reach and aspirations.

The pop-up, at 522 Octavia St., serves as a test bed, providing insight on consumer wants in person, versus online. Called Hill City, a direct-to-consumer brand within Gap Inc.'s global brand portfolio, it is led by a small team of fewer than 20 people, headed up by Noah Palmer.

Hill City celebrated its one-year anniversary in October by launching a physical store at the pop-up location and debuting a mobile shop-in-a-truck experience that offers customers a unique opportunity to touch, feel and purchase product in person. Hill City also plans to establish brand "capsules" within Gap's Athleta stores and retailer, A Runner's Mind, within its second year.

The customer experience strategy, while still in its early phase, is all about providing shoppers with what they want as well as helping Palmer and his team learn what styles shoppers gravitate toward while in a physical location, versus an online experience. For example, the brand's soft shell, hooded jacket and hybrid shirt jacket are attracting the physical store shoppers' attention as they're able to experience and appreciate the natural feel of the fabric.

"We are seeing the strong visceral reaction that customers have to our product fabrics, construction, and details in person that is often difficult to see and experience from behind a screen," Palmer told Retail Customer Experience in an email interview.

The retail experience going forward

But gauging in-store shopper interest is just one of many strategic experience focal points for Hill City, whose product line is also sold at Huckberry.com, Need Supply and Neighborhood Goods and Ships (Tokyo) through wholesale partnerships.

The first year provided Palmer and his team with time to iron out the strategy, solidify the brand ethos and "get all of our products to where we want them," according to a Gap blog on the brand effort. Now, Palmer said Hill City is "turning a corner," and taking the brand from that initial pop-up iPhone experience to an in-store active physical existence.

As Palmer stated in the blog, Hill City's approach to the retail physical space is multi-pronged and not only used as a point of sale, but a community space for brand activations and events.

"The store is the most powerful way in which we can bring the Hill City brand to life for our earliest customers, as well as people that are new to the brand. There has been an intense hunger from customers to see behind-the-scenes of the team and process behind the Hill City brand, and this space is a way in which we can expose more of that to people in a very authentic way," he said.

The focus of the shop-in-a-truck, said Palmer, is to bring the Hill City brand to customers where they are located.

"The truck carries a curated selection of styles for people to try-on in the dressing room inside the truck and purchase. It is a more nimble way in which we can make it easy for people to discover and experience Hill City — the products, the brand, and the people behind the brand," said Palmer.

Moving forward, Palmer stated in the blog, the focus will remain all about customer reach and interaction.

"Everything we are doing is in the name of taking the Hill City brand to where the customer is," the blog said.

About Judy Mottl

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Judy Mottl is editor of Retail Customer Experience and Digital Signage Today. She has decades of experience as a reporter, writer and editor covering technology and business for top media including AOL, InformationWeek, InternetNews and Food Truck Operator.

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