The Zara flagship store has opened in Nanjing (China) and promises to be Zara's ‘most digital’ store. Its innovative format combines digital integration with spaces designed to improve the shopping experience. This launch is part of the company's global strategy to reduce underperforming stores and focus on larger, more technologically advanced establishments.

Located in the central shopping district of Xinjiekou, the store has a surface area of 2,500 square meters distributed over two floors. As reported by Reuters, among its novelties is a room for private shopping experiences, a seating area and personal fitting rooms.

In addition, an innovative studio has been incorporated, equipped with several cameras and lighting sets. Customers can record their own videos and download them to their phones to post on social networks. To access these facilities, customers must make a reservation through WeChat, the popular Chinese messaging application.  

Zacaffe Concept will be present in China

Another of the store's attractions is the presence of the first 'Zacaffe' café concept, which is only present in the store on Calle Hermosilla in Madrid. This specialty coffee space with a range of merchandising products is expected to be exported to other markets, such as Japan and South Korea, throughout 2025.

China has been a key market for Zara's implementation of new strategies. The success of its shopping programs broadcast live on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, led the brand to expand this sales model to Europe and the United States. The company seeks to revitalize its retail network in a context of slowing consumption and growing competition from local brands, which have consolidated their digital presence and optimized their supply chains.

Since 2019, Inditex has significantly reduced its physical presence in China, going from 570 stores to just 132 at the end of January. With this new store in Nanjing, Zara reaffirms its commitment to innovative and large-scale formats, which could be replicated in other markets depending on their performance in China.

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Zara has added a new store to its list; the second biggest Zara, with over 5000 m2, has been inaugurated in Lisbon. This new concept store is located in Lisbon, Praça de D. Pedro IV, in the heart of Rossio.

In its press release, Inditex describes the store as “the latest exponent of the Zara store model”. It is also located in one of the best-known areas of the Portuguese capital, in a “vibrant and cosmopolitan space that brings together the city's culture, history and commercial tradition”.

The design by Elsa Urquijo Arquitectos pays tribute to the building's historical value and all the trades that have been housed in it throughout history, with the Portuguese artisan tradition. On three floors, the new store, which has nearly 5,000 square meters of retail space, displays the women's, men's, children's, and Zara Home fashion collections.

Zara will launch a capsule collection by Stefano Pilati in October.

Custard tarts included

This store is inspired by the spacious flagships, with a renewed image and product display areas that feature technological tools focused on improving the customer's shopping experience. The Zara store in Lisbon combines boutique spaces  with experiential areas.

Among the main novelties are the beauty area, the play area in the children's section and spaces dedicated to specific lines and collections of the brand such as lingerie, shoes & bags, origins, athleticz and selected pieces from the Zara Home+ by Vincent Van Duysen collection.

In addition, this store has a bakery. This is “Zara by Castro”, a collaboration with Castro, a Portuguese atelier specialized in making pasteis de Belem (custard tarts). In their note, they emphasize that “our customers can enjoy a specialty coffee and taste a cream cake in a unique, contemporary atmosphere, full of history and memories”.

Zara 2024 results

Zara is having a blast in 2024. EBITDA grew by 8.1% to 5.04 billion euros. EBIT grew by 11.9% to EUR 3,541 million, and income before taxes by 10.6% to EUR 3,598 million. The company's yearly report provides a breakdown of the financial results.

Inditex, which also owns Pull&Bear, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, and Stradivarius, said its spring and summer collections were “very well received” by customers.

Sales increased by 7.2 percent to €18.1 billion, a slower pace than in the first six months of 2023 when they grew by 13.5 percent.

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Zara Pre-Owned arrives in France. Inditex has announced that from next Thursday, September 7, the French will be able to enjoy its Pre-Owned service to purchase second-hand garments from the brand. France will be the second market in which the Spanish fashion retailer will launch its new business model, as it is already active in the United Kingdom.

Starting next week, Zara customers in France will have access to the second-hand platform, which is integrated into Zara's website and mobile app. Consumers will be able, through this space, to extend the useful life of garments because they can be repaired or sold, or even buy second-hand clothes.

The Fashion Network website has shared the statements made by Paula Ampuero, head of sustainable development at Zara.com: "We firmly believe that innovation is fundamental to the development of a circular future, so we work actively and collaboratively to find and bring to scale solutions to shape an increasingly sustainable value chain".

Zara Pre-Owned, a bet for sustainability 

The Zara Pre-Owned platform first saw the light of day in November 2022 in the United Kingdom and has been very well received in the market. For this reason, Marta Ortega, current chairwoman of the Inditex group, shared at the last Shareholders' Meeting, held last July, that this proposal will be extended to the company's key markets by 2025: "The idea is to continue extending Zara Pre-Owned to new markets. We are going to start with France and Germany, but we are making every effort to reach Spain before the end of the year".

Among the services included in Zara Pre-Owned is the Zara garment repair service. Through a form in which you have to indicate data such as the type of garment, color or condition, you can request the repair of buttons, seams or replacement of zippers. In addition, customers can request subsequent collection in-store and track the process.

On the other hand, the platform offers a space for buying and selling online between individuals where the company's role is to provide security for transactions, manage the management of package shipments, and track the process.

Inditex aims to reduce its emissions by 50% by 2030 and is working on it with this type of initiative.

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Zara, the Spanish internationally renowned fashion brand, has jumped into the trend of circular economy and will sell second-hand clothing with a new Zara thrift shop functionality.

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The new Zara ‘thrift functionality’ will be available in the UK as e-commerce functionality and also as a test in the brand's flagship stores in London. 

With this new approach, the textile giant is going one step further in its circular economy strategy. An approach Zara began to take when the brand presented a range of more sustainable items under the label 'Join Life'. 

These products are manufactured with less water, energy, and emissions or with recycled materials. Now, Inditex's  - Zara’s parent company - next goal is to sell second-hand clothing. 

Zara’s thrift shop experiment will start in the U.K.

For the moment this new ‘thrift shop functionality’ is being launched on November 3 on one of its platforms in the United Kingdom, aptly named Zara Pre Owned. 

But it is not ruled out that this could be applied to several countries and, of course, also in Spain, the birthplace of Inditex.

On this platform, second-hand clothing will be offered at discount prices, and Zara claims that alongside the second-hand platform, they will also add a service to repair and retouch clothes before re-selling them. 

Inditex's goal is to extend the life of clothes and give them another chance. This follows in the wake of other companies that are doing the same, in addition to the already known second-hand stores such as Vinted, which is successful in many countries.

A donation center and a shop in one app

As Zara’s press release specifies, on this website you can also donate clothes to the Red Cross and other charitable organizations, thus giving a second life to something you do not need and someone else does. 

In this case, they come to pick it up at your home, for your convenience. With no shipping costs added to the service. 

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The fashion sector - for many years considered the main engine behind e-commerce in Spain - is recovering from the pandemic effect thanks to the push of fast fashion, which recorded a growth of almost 300% in the past 2021. 

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This is one of the main conclusions of a study done by the online bank N26, which has analyzed customer spending data at fashion retailers, to determine whether and how consumption in this sector changed during and after the health crisis.

N26 study aims at the fact that e-commerce has recovered faster than traditional brick-and-mortar commerce. According to the data recorded by the bank, in the entire period analyzed by N26 - between January 2021 and June 2022, both inclusive - the vast majority of payment transactions were made online.

All the categories analyzed (fast fashion, luxury, sports, and second-hand) have shown some recovery in 2022 compared to 2021. 

Fast fashion rules in Spain 

But the growth has not been similar in all cases: fast fashion retailers saw a 291.86% increase in the number of purchases in June 2022 (the month in which the highest number of purchases recorded by the mobile bank occurred) compared to the same month the previous year. 

However, although Spaniards go shopping on more occasions, they spend a smaller amount. Thus, while the average expenditure in these stores was 64.5€ in 2021, in June this year it was 56€. 

All in all, fast fashion is the queen of the categories: almost 80% (79.59%) of the total number of payment transactions in fashion analyzed by N26 are in this type of company.

Zara, Primark, and Vinted leading the growth 

N26 study shows that Zara, Primark, and Vinted are, in that order, the stores most chosen by Spaniards for their purchases. 

The average amount per purchase in Zara stores is 47€, while Primark (28€) and Vinted (23.5€) have a more moderate average expenditure per purchase. 

The ranking by payments is completed, in order, by Zalando in the fourth position followed by Shein, Bershka, Stradivarius, Uniqlo, and Nike. The latter is, from this first list, in which Spaniards invest more money with an average of 86.8€ per purchase.

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Zara has decided to add fixed shipping costs. Regardless of how much they have spent, customers will now have to pay 3.95 euros for each home delivery or pick-up at delivery points.  This is a game changer for the Spanish e-commerce fashion market. 

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Previously, shipping costs for these two modes were free with a minimum spend of 30 euros, but now on Zara's website you can read "Standard delivery - 3,95 euros / FREE FOR ORDERS FROM 30 EUROS (applies only to non-discounted items)". And you find this out when you are at the end of the checkout process.

Shipping costs are not applied in case of picking up the purchase in the store, although during the sales season only some stores have this option enabled.

No more free returns 

Another measure that has generated discontent among Zara’s consumers has been the change in their return policies. Since April, Inditex - Zara’s parent company - has been applying an additional amount within the process of returns of purchases made online or at collection points with Zara worldwide, and although in Spain it has not yet been applied, company sources say it will soon arrive.

The measure has been implemented in 30 countries and within Europe is present in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. In the latter, customers must pay 1.95 pounds for each return of one of their purchases through the online channel. 

The charge is applied when making the return from the customer's home or when using a third-party collection point, exempting returns of purchases made directly in the chain's official stores. From Inditex, they explain that "stores are exempt because the store collection process is more efficient".

Taking into account the study made by IAB Spain, Ecommerce in Spain 2022, where 1 in 2 online shoppers consider the lack of shipping costs as the main reason for choosing e-commerce and 48% say they have abandoned an online shopping cart due to hidden costs such as shipping or VAT, it would be interesting to know how the change in Zara's policies can affect its sales.

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