{"id":32122,"date":"2019-11-09T18:30:05","date_gmt":"2019-11-09T18:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=32122"},"modified":"2019-11-09T18:30:05","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T18:30:05","slug":"zara-leading-the-digital-store-concept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/zara-leading-the-digital-store-concept\/","title":{"rendered":"Zara: Leading the digital store concept"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zara stores have become part of the urban panorama of the main capital cities around the world, and London is certainly not an exception. With 18 stores just in Greater London, four of them are located in Oxford Street: one of London\u2019s most popular streets for shopping, Zara covers the needs of the fashion capital.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since its first opening in the United Kingdom in 1998, Zara has expanded its brand throughout the country, currently operating 64 stores. The last reported figures indicate that sales went up 10 percent year-on-year from \u00a3704.8 million to \u00a3772.5 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

What most people don\u2019t know is the story behind this grand empire with more than 2,000 stores all over the world and presence in 96 different countries. Zara didn\u2019t just drastically change the textile industry in Spain, it also did around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the reason for its global success?<\/b><\/p>\n

In the past, trends weren\u2019t as accessible to ordinary people as they are nowadays. Stores used to take a long time to bring fashion trends to consumers and by the time it was available, customers were already interested in other different styles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though it sounds simple, it seems that none noticed it before. The key factor of Zara\u2019s success was to reduce the waiting time for customers, and give them what they wanted when they wanted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is what Zara\u2019s founder, Amancio Ortega, called \u201cinstant fashion\u201d, a concept that meant to renovate Zara\u2019s collections each week rather than every three months, like most parts of the companies used to do. This leads into an infinite variety of pieces that at the same time invites consumers to buy more in a shorter time-lapse.<\/span><\/p>\n

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High-couture inspired fashion at affordable prices<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that the key to Zara\u2019s success lies in its ability to take the trends of the most relevant catwalks to the street. And how you get that? Setting affordable prices. From celebrities to royals, nobody, or almost nobody can resist Zara\u2019s charm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some examples of it are Queen Rania of Jordan, Sienna Miller or Pippa Middleton, who have been photographed wearing clothes from the brand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flagship stores around the world<\/b><\/p>\n

The flagship stores of the brand are distributed worldwide in premium shopping areas, for example, the Champs Elys\u00e9es in Paris, Preciados Street in Madrid or Oxford Street in London.<\/span><\/p>\n

London, chosen to lead the way to a new digital store concept<\/b><\/p>\n

Last year, the brand opened its most modern flagship store in Westfield Stratford City, pioneering a new digital store concept.<\/span><\/p>\n

With almost 50.000 square feet, the store located in East London is the first Zara\u2019s store in the world that incorporates four shopping sections, apart from the traditional women, men and kids, it has a fourth one dedicated to online purchases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The store features interactive mirrors with RFID (radio frequency identification) which can identify an item you are holding and make outfits suggestions in the mirror.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among other innovations, the store also has an automatized point to allow customers to collect items bought online in a few seconds. This is possible thanks to a dynamic robot that has the capacity to manage up to 2.400 packages at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apart from the conventional payment system, it is possible to make purchases through the app of the brand, InWallet group or by using self-service tills to short the payment process.<\/span><\/p>\n

This system permits customers to keep their purchases tickets on their mobile phones to meet the plans of the eco-efficient stores\u2019 project that the brand takes part in, which is expected to be accomplished by 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zara\u2019s store in Stratford City also incorporates advances in the matter of emission reduction and energy-saving systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Facts about the brand that you probably don\u2019t know<\/b><\/p>\n