When asked, an employee was able to talk about the site-to-store shipping process, but did not know much about the online sale or other online features.
While the shopping experiences at Walmart.com and at a Walmart store are similar in many ways, the shopping experience at Oldnavy.com and an Old Navy store are quite different. Oldnavy.com was not offering any exclusively online sales at the moment, but many of their offerings on the website are available only online. They do not seem concerned with driving sales to their physical storefronts. Their store locator requires several click-throughs, and while it does provide a map of nearby stores, it does not provide a list of their comparative distances or their local sales.
In addition, Oldnavy.com does not provide the convenience of free site-to-store shipping, nor does it tell you, like the Walmart site does, whether an item you are looking at online is available at your local store as well....
Its website does have more of a presence in the stores, however. I found two print advertisements for the website in my local Old Navy store, and a sales associate was enthusiastic about the site when asked, pointing out the much greater selection online and the cheap shipping costs.
While Walmart is clearly using its website to drive traffic to its stores, Old Navy seems to be using a different strategy. It is not easy to combine online and store shopping on Oldnavy.com, but it is easy to access and shop at Old Navy's sister companies (Banana Republic, Gap, Piperlime, and Athleta) while at its website. Instead of focusing on reinforcing its brand through its click-and-mortar strategies, the parent company of Old Navy is using its website to drive traffic across all of their brands, potentially widening the scope of the customer base both online and in stores.
References
http://oldnavy.gap.com / http://www.walmart.com/
